


Sailor Arashi

by opaquebubble



Category: Arashi (Band)
Genre: F/M, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-10
Updated: 2018-05-09
Packaged: 2019-04-20 21:48:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 69,210
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14270244
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/opaquebubble/pseuds/opaquebubble
Summary: What if Arashi were just regular guys? ...Who also happened to be magical singing soldiers? This is their story.Rated Mature for language, and a little violence, creepiness, and heavy snogging.





	1. Act One

**Author's Note:**

> This story is unbeta’d because I do not currently have one. I apologize for any glaring errors, please let me know if you spot anything and I’ll fix it!
> 
> Plot is borrowed heavily from PGSM/Sailor Moon, a tiny bit of ShugoChara, and a tiny bit of Mass Effect, with an Arashi twist. Because boys in skirts. 
> 
> This story has also recently been re-edited for mistakes/clarity and is now less of a mess, thank you for your patience XD

_Prologue_

The moon shone bright and high over the dark and empty streets and rooftops of the city. Empty, but for a single masked figure perched atop one of those moon-drenched rooves. The figure, a slight form with long blond locks of hair, and an unusual skirted costume, leapt somehow from one roof to another with silent grace. Trailing behind him, a small orb floated through the air, seemingly unaided, glowing with faint occasional flickers of yellow light. 

“It’s almost time,” he said to his companion. 

“They are not yet ready,” the orb reasoned vacantly 

“Doesn’t matter either way, we need them. I need them. Ready or not.” 

He was waiting, and he was ready. 

The piercing blare of an alarm cut through the silence of the night, a loud crash of glass, and the sound of rapid footsteps, running, followed shortly thereafter. The footsteps belonged to yet another masked stranger, a young woman in a top hat and a cape streaking through the streets, leaving a trail of sparkling loot in her wake. 

“Stop, you!” he shouted after her, descending to the street with a graceful flip, and pursuing at top speed, heels click-clacking into the night. 

Act One 

The next morning, in a small bedroom somewhere in the city, a phone alarm chirped loudly to life on a bedside table, jangling out a song’s intro before the vocals kicked in. 

“ _Kokontoko itsumo bimyou na kyori wo kanjite ita…”_

“Mmngh,” Jun groaned and didn't move, but the song played cheerily on. 

Half an hour later, his phone was still looping the song, but Jun had fallen back into a deep sleep. This wonderful sleep was only interrupted by the bangs of his upstairs neighbor’s broomstick on the floor. A familiar and subtle hint that if Jun didn't stop his alarm, he would have an angry neighbor at his door very shortly. It wouldn't have been the first time. 

He cast an arm out of his cocoon of blankets to grab for his phone, shut off the alarm, and blinked blearily at the time it displayed. 

_Late._ Shit. 

He had an appointment in twenty minutes, and it was always preferable to make a good impression, which did not involve being late. Propelling himself out of bed, Jun rushed to get himself presentable and professional looking in the short amount of time left. 

When he paused to look at himself in the mirror, his eyes looked tired. 

It had been a late night, though not for any fun reasons. A client from overseas, and soon-to-be-bride, had requested the most unforgettable bachelorette party ever, and Jun was never one to disappoint. It wasn't the sort of party he did regularly, but it was not his first, and he orchestrated it to near perfection, down to the last detail, from the limo that transported them through the city, to the glitter that sparkled down from the club's ceiling at the end of the night. 

After the quickest shower he had ever taken, Jun did his best to brush as much of the leftover glitter out of his hair as he could before making an attempt to style it. He would definitely need sunglasses today. Maybe a hat. He’d had nowhere near enough sleep. 

At least this wouldn’t be another wild party. From what the client had explained, Jun would be assisting her with a relatively low-key fashion show for some prominent jewelers in the area, and they were meeting today to discuss the finer points. He was sure he could handle whatever she had planned. 

His alarm song, a tune by his favorite pop idol Ninomiya, wandered through his head still, and Jun hummed along as he rushed out the door. 

\--- 

He was still humming the song ten minutes later, hurrying along through a familiar park, and cutting across a small bridge. Well, almost. He didn't quite make it across the bridge, for as he crossed Jun felt something solid hit his shoulder and bounce off into the grass. 

“Ouch…" He stopped short, rubbing at the sore spot where it had hit. Whatever it was, it had some weight to it, despite it's bouncier qualities. 

What the hell was it, anyway? Jun looked around. Perhaps some kid with a ball had gotten a little too enthusiastic? 

But there was no kid. There was no one around at all. Jun frowned. Was it a squirrel? It hit him pretty fast, but it hadn’t looked like a squirrel, or felt like a squirrel (whatever that meant). 

There was only one way to know for sure. Forgetting for a moment his impending lateness, Jun wandered over to investigate the grassy area where he assumed the object landed... 

Nestled down in the grass, something was glinting at him, shining. Jun reached for it, uncertain still what it was he was actually looking at. 

It was a solid milky-white sphere, about the size of a tennis ball. When he squeezed it, there was a little give, also not unlike a tennis ball. As he held it up to examine further, he noticed the glinting again... It was almost as though the glare were coming from the core of the ball, a faint, fluttering yellow light in its depths. 

Did it just…wiggle in his hand? 

Weird. 

In his pocket, Jun’s phone buzzed, and all at once he remembered. _Late!_

He wasn’t sure what to do with the ball. It looked very like a kid’s toy, one of those rubber things with sparkles and LED lights inside. Better to leave it, right? Someone might come back for it. 

He settled for perching it atop a nearby wall, before hurrying on his way, and not looking back. 

The ball, or whatever it was, rocked faintly on the edge of the wall, almost as if it wished to follow him. Within, a soft purple-hued light began to join the yellow in its flickering. 

\--- 

Somehow, and Jun wasn’t quite sure how, he had gotten dragged into karaoke. 

Not that he minded it all that terribly much. It was a familiar place, he enjoyed karaoke, and he was pretty good at it... but he was still tired. 

It was hard though, in fact nearly impossible, to say no to a client, so here he was. Day-drinking. Jun did his best not to wince through the majority of her song choices. It was fine. This was fine. At least planning the fashion show for her would pay well. 

Only after a few drinks and a few songs did she finally decided to take Jun to tour the venue where the event was to be held. They were doing pretty well, actually. They were making progress and sorting out some of the preliminary details, but then Jun turned away for just a moment to ponder a rack of clothes and managed somehow to lose his client. 

Now he would have to waste time looking for her. Jun wasn’t in the greatest of moods already, so when he turned a corner, and collided with someone else, it was another spark for his temper to catch on. 

“Oi! Watch where you’re going, huh?” Only after he spoke did Jun notice that the woman he'd run into looked just as annoyed as he was. 

“ _You_ watch it, asshole. I wasn’t the one flying around the corner...” 

Jun was surprised, and a little impressed...but still a lot annoyed. “You weren't one of the models, where are you supposed to be?” 

“That’s none of your business,” she snapped back, and stormed off before Jun could even open his mouth to respond. 

_I guess she's having a bad day too..._

Eventually, Jun found his client. They went over a few more important details before he wished her a good night, and got to work on the logistics of bringing their vision to life. 

\--- 

That night when all of the prep work that he could do was done, Jun stumbled through his door, out of his shoes, and promptly collapsed into bed with a groan. He didn't even bothering with the lights, he needed to sleep if he was going to be any kind of effective tomorrow. 

He didn’t notice the orb rocking gently on his windowsill, at least not at first. 

Yawning big, it was only when Jun stretched to lay his phone on the table that the faint glow of it, the flickering, caught his eye. 

“Eh?” 

How… no, that didn’t make any sense. He definitely, definitely left that ball at the park. Definitely. Right? How the hell did it get into his room? 

“Matsumoto-san.” It sounded like a woman’s voice. 

Jun looked around wildly, his heart suddenly racing. _Who said that!?_

“Matsumoto-san,” came the voice again, soft and calm, but emotionless, and the sphere on his window sill seemed to glow brighter in time with the syllables. 

“Ehhh??” Jun scrambled from the bed to his feet, not sure if he was hallucinating, if he should run, or what exactly. 

The ball wasn’t talking to him. Right? The ball was definitely not talking to him. He was just tired. Just…really, really tired. 

“I apologize if I startled you,” the voice chimed robotically, and it was definitely coming from the ball, the light inside it brightening with each word. 

Jun rubbed at his eyes a little desperately, hoping it would go away. The sphere, for its part, had not actually sounded apologetic. It continued on speaking as though Jun weren’t bothered, though he clearly was. 

“I am an artificial intelligence node. You may call me SOUL.” 

“What.” 

This really shouldn’t be happening, but it appeared to Jun that it was, and the talking ball wasn’t going away. Instead, the talking ball wiggled a bit before… rising from the window sill to hover in the air of Jun’s bedroom, still glowing. 

…The hell? 

“You must listen to me, Matsumoto-san. This is very important.” 

For all that it was ‘important’ there was no urgency in the- in SOUL’s cool voice, and it unnerved Jun quite a bit, the disconnect. SOUL only continued drifting disconcertingly in the air in front of him. 

“A great evil is stirring in the world. Matsumoto-san, you and your soldiers must fight this evil together, for you are also a soldier.” 

“…” Jun was silent for quite some time, but his mind was racing, still fairly sure he was hallucinating. Why would an AI care about evil? Had his client slipped something into his drink at karaoke? 

It was so _real_ though, not hazy or fuzzy at all. There was only one explanation- 

“This is a joke.” It wasn’t even a question, it was all so obviously absurd. “It’s not a funny joke,” Jun added for good measure, to… _whoever_ might be listening in. 

He stared at the orb nonplussed and the orb glowed placidly back at him. 

It was some kind of drone, right? Someone was playing a trick or a game. Hidden tv cameras? …In his apartment? 

“Matsumoto-san, citizens of this city are in danger. Only you can help.” 

Jun had had about enough of the nonsense. Also, maybe, he was a little bit scared. Or... more than a little bit scared at the moment, seeing something which he wasn't entirely certain was real. “Ha…Haha. Okay. This is a joke, it isn’t real, and I am going to bed.” 

And hopefully in the morning it would all be a horribly strange dream. Jun crawled back into bed and tried to burrow underneath his covers. The cool, drifting voice continued unremitting. 

“Matsumoto-san, you must fight for us. The world needs you.” 

_I’m not listening. I’m not listening. You’re not real. It’s not real. Go away._

“You must listen.” It was not imploring, it was not pleading, it was not even exasperated. The voice was blank, as if Jun listening were an inevitability from which there was no escape. “You must fight. The danger is near now. It is close to those who are close to you.” 

What the hell did _that_ mean? Carefully, Jun chanced a peek at the orb through a crack in his covers. It only continued to glow at him. 

“Go away,” he said flatly, feeling completely ridiculous for talking to it at all. 

“I will leave you now,” SOUL intoned calmly. “Should you require my assistance, you need only activate the orb. Be cautious of those around you.” 

That quickly the ball stopped glowing and fell to the mat floor of Jun’s tiny apartment with a thud and a soft bounce. 

And how was he supposed to sleep now? 

\--- 

It took some time, but eventually exhaustion ruled out all other options and Jun managed to fall asleep. When he woke the next morning the sun had been up for quite some time. 

It was only after several beats of yawning and stretching that Jun remembered… the dream. Cause that had to be a… 

But it hadn’t been a dream, because when Jun chanced a glance at it, the ball-thing ( _SOUL_ , his brain reminded him. _Its name is SOUL._ ) was still on the floor where it had fallen last night, dark and motionless. 

“Seriously?” Jun complained to the otherwise empty room, but no one answered, and the ball still didn’t move. Maybe he really did hallucinate it all? Right, someone had just slipped something into his drink at the karaoke place, and that was actually really disturbing, but at least it was a real thing that actually happened and not- 

But no. The ball had still somehow gotten from the park into his apartment, and there was no explaining it away, or at least no reason that was satisfying Jun’s practical mind. 

It left him uneasy, but slowly and sleepily Jun climbed out of bed to collect the sphere and place it back on the window sill. Whatever this was, he was going to have to worry about it later, because he needed to get ready for work. 

He had a fashion show to put on. 

\--- 

Jun arrived at the venue early to be sure that all of the necessary arrangements were in order, but when he knocked at the side entrance door no one answered. When he tried the door, he discovered it was very firmly locked, which didn't make much sense, since it was the entrance all of the staff was meant to come through. He would have to find another way in, knowing the front entrance would also be locked until shortly before showtime, which was far too late for all that Jun had yet to do in preparation. 

Circling around the building, Jun was looking for another door, possibly even a window, and did not register the tiny orb rolling at quick speed over the ground behind him, following his footsteps. It seemed to know to stay far enough behind to remain out of Jun’s notice, for now. 

He had a bad feeling, a very uncomfortable feeling. Something was wrong, off, but Jun couldn’t put his finger on what. Maybe it was just that he couldn’t shake all of the odd happenings from last night, but it felt like something more... 

_Aha! Open window!_

The window was only cracked but it opened easily wider when he pulled at it. Jun checked that the coast was clear, both inside and out, before he began trying to climb through. 

“Matsumoto-san.” 

Jun only had one leg in the window and was struggling to get his other leg up without crushing anything important when SOUL said his name and he nearly fell out of it again. He at least managed to retain enough of his dignity to climb out gracefully. 

“Don’t _do_ that!” his anxious voice echoed across the thankfully empty courtyard, his heart still pounding. Jesus. 

Unperturbed, SOUL hovered at Jun’s eye-line just a few feet away. It was difficult to dismiss now when the ball right in front of his eyes, in broad daylight. He wondered if it would be better that this was actual reality, or better if he was still somehow hallucinating the talking ball. Neither seemed preferable. 

“You are going toward danger, Matsumoto-san, and you are not prepared.” 

“I thought you said I had to... activate you, or something.” He was pretty sure he heard that last night. Though, if this was a hallucination, then he supposed it didn’t entirely matter if it was a consistent one. 

“You are in grave danger,” SOUL repeated vacantly, as though this overruled all other priorities and questioning was futile. “It is not safe for you to enter this place without protection.” 

Jun was pretty sure he would lose this job, and his paycheck, if anyone (the client in particular) caught him standing there talking to a floating ball, or worse, talking to simply nothing at all. He knew he needed to get inside, and he didn’t want to be followed. _Sigh._

“...What kind of protection?” 

A sudden flash of blinding light startled him and Jun grumbled a bit and tried to cover his eyes. This whole thing just kept getting weirder... Now he was holding something. When did that happen? 

Another weird thing, too. In his hand was what looked like a microphone, but a purple bejeweled one, with sparkles. 

It _was_ particularly cute... But wait. “What am I supposed to do with this? How is this protection?” 

“It is the key to your strength as a soldier,” SOUL recited. 

Jun stared. A microphone was the key to his strength? Was the ball-thing trying to tell him he was too quiet or something? It didn't make much sense. 

“Right. I-” But it was no use arguing now, was it? He was losing precious time before the show. Jun gave in, stuffing the microphone into his jacket pocket, if only to avoid anyone else spotting the sparkly object. “I’m going to go in now.” 

He waited, but SOUL didn’t say anything more, only glowed faintly at him in the bright sunlight. 

Jun managed to scramble through the window. If he could just get through this day, then he was definitely going to be calling a psychologist. Or a psychic. One of those. SOUL followed in behind him. 

“Wait- what? No! _You stay here_. Don’t follow me, okay?” he chastised the orb in a sharp whisper. He could hear footsteps coming down one of the hallways. 

Instead of listening to him, Jun was shocked when SOUL zoomed around him and dove into his other jacket pocket, settling there as a solid weight. Ah… wonderful. Hopefully she didn't start talking in the middle of a meeting. 

_Just focus on the job… you’ve got to get through the day._

“Matsumoto-san!” Thankfully it wasn’t SOUL this time. It was one of his client’s many assistants. “We’ve been looking for you!” 

She had questions for him and Jun did his best to answer them, delving into work also stopped him thinking about the weird shit going on in his life, and in his pockets. It was a relief to have something else to think about. 

But that uneasy feeling did not really leave him. 

\--- 

Some hours later, everything seemed to be running smoothly. Jun’s client had been somewhat scarce in the lead-up to the event, which made him a bit nervous, but she appeared at showtime to the audience's polite applause. Jun made sure to wave at her. Then the models began to walk the runway. The lighting was perfect, the music just right… it all looked very professional. Jun was proud of himself. 

He ignored the sick twisting feeling in his stomach _insisting_ to him that something was very wrong for as long as he could- 

Which was not very long. At the peak of the show, when all was as it should have been… everything went wrong. Jun really wasn’t prepared for what came next. 

From his place standing at the back of the room, Jun watched his client step forward to the center of the stage and throw her arms out to the crowd that had gathered to see her show. Then, the room began to fill with a dark, hazy smoke, pouring out... from her fingertips? 

It was pretty unexpected. What the hell was she doing, exactly? It was even more unexpected when nearly everyone in the room began to collapse to the floor, appearing to be out cold. 

People continued to fall until they were all down, audience and models alike, everyone... except for Jun. He watched in mute horror as his client, who did not seem like herself _at all_ , rounded on one of the collapsed models, and crouched to stroke her hair. Her voice when she spoke also seemed entirely out of character, angrier, colder, and more foreboding. 

“So much… energy. _I will have you all…_ ” 

“HOLD IT!” 

Oh no. Jun really did not want to get involved, but that same unhappy, twisting concern which had been plaguing him since he arrived at the venue now seemed to be spurring him into action, whether he liked it or not. Before Jun could even really stop to process what was happening, he was confronting his client. 

“Stop!” he pressed on, with all the authority he could muster (which was quite a bit, actually). “Don’t hurt them.” 

His voice sounded so loud to his ears in the silent room, and his client seemed as shocked as he was to see him. 

She was now discernibly angry. “You? How are you awake!?” 

Jun thought that was a really good question. “Ah… ” 

Before he could say anything more, Jun felt his pocket wiggling, and SOUL was there, flickering purple and yellow, hovering just over his shoulder, and Jun had to admit… he was a little relieved to see her. 

“Because you are a soldier,” she answered for him. 

“Right. What she said,” Jun ejected immediately, nodding toward the floating orb. “I’m a soldier!” 

He didn't know what that meant exactly, but it sounded important. 

His client, or whatever she was now, the look in her eyes was at once dead and furious, nothing like the ambitious young woman Jun remembered meeting with yesterday. She did not seem impressed with his answer. An invisible wind started to whip up around her, pulling wildly at her hair and the fabric of her suit. All of the air in the room began to vibrate with a dark sort of energy. 

“A soldier...?” she repeated. 

Jun swallowed hard around a dry lump in his throat when _something_ , dark and huge and menacing, seemed to burst out from her, filling the space of the large hall, almost to the ceiling. Huge tendril-like fingers of ephemeral matter reached toward him, and Jun felt his knees go a bit weak. 

_What the **fuck** is that._

“Ah…fuck? What am I supposed to do?” Jun didn’t want any part of this anymore. Not that he really had to begin with. 

“It is a Monster,” SOUL said peacefully. “You should run now.” 

“YOU COULD HAVE SAID THAT SOONER!” Jun was shouting, mostly because he’d just needed to dodge one of the large, flailing, dark-tentacle things, and this was _so not okay._ He managed to keep his feet under him (only just), and make for the nearest doors, big ones off the main theater which led out into a large, bright atrium. 

Squinting for his eyes to adjust, Jun skidded to a halt, looking back to see if the creature (or his client, if she was even still in there) was following him. 

“Matsumoto-san," SOUL chimed. "There is no time. You must transform.” 

He didn’t know what that meant, but the Monster was squeezing through the doors now, and he had to do _something_. Blindly he reached for the microphone in his pocket, and Jun felt an inexplicable shockwave of energy moving through him. 

It felt initially like the microphone was a channel, through which all of this new energy was flowing into him. It felt bright, and bubbling, and sparkly, and then Jun heard himself calling out words he did not even know, or else did not know that he knew them. 

“ARASHI POWER – FOR DREAM!” 

Well that was really embarrassing, what was happening to him? What did that even _mean_? The power of storms? 

It felt as though his body knew exactly what it was doing, without any help from him, muscle memory for a dance he had never done before taking complete control. It should have been scary but instead struck him only as strange. Then all of a sudden, Jun was surrounded by his own invisible wind, swirling with light and color, a vibrant purple, and ribbons, and sparkles. 

It was beyond surprising. 

Also... something was happening to his clothes? For a second, Jun felt really exposed, and that probably wasn’t good, since no one wanted to fight a monster naked. 

Was there music playing? Or was that all in his head? Was all of this all in his head? He was talking again, talking without knowing what he was saying, because they were not really his words. Except it was his voice, so maybe they were his words after all. 

“In the name of Arashi, I will punish you!” 

Jun thought that sounded a little too ambitious, potentially dangerous, actually. Really just surviving would have been enough for him, but then, nothing about this seemed terribly safe and he couldn’t exactly unsay it all after the fact. When the chaos and light faded, Jun had to reexamine the situation, and himself. 

“...Why am I in a skirt?” 

Perhaps not the most prudent question in the moment, but it was posed with genuine confusion. It was a purple skirt, paired with a cinched white bodice that actually felt a little tight, but was hardly the worst part of the whole ensemble. There was also a massive purple bow on his chest, and he was pretty sure his boots had heels… and he had pigtails. When did his hair get so _long_? Was this really his hair? 

“This is the traditional soldier's armor.” SOUL sounded unmoved, as usual. She was only answering his question. Jun had more though, since none of this really made any sense. 

“Wait, wait. How is this armor? My legs are bare! ... This skirt barely covers anything!” In fact, Jun felt like he had to keep tugging it down in the back. It definitely didn't seem safe for battle. 

Even he had to admit though, these long white gloves were pretty nice. Very classy. 

SOUL apparently didn’t have time for more of his questions. Neither did Jun actually, because he was out of time. Whatever the hold-up had been, the Monster finally made it through the doors. 

“Matsumoto-san... look out.” 

Given the abundance of impending doom the current situation was presenting, Jun thought SOUL really should have had a more urgent tone. She sounded quite bored with the whole affair. 

A couple of huge tendrils of angry looking dark energy came barreling toward him which Jun only just managed to avoid with a sudden roll to the right. 

...How did he do that? His body just took over. 

When he tried to do it again, Jun flailed slightly, clutching at his microphone. It didn’t really work this time like he wanted it to, but he managed not to be touched by the darkness just as he also narrowly avoided tumbling over the railing to the lower level. 

“This is not good... what am I supposed to be doing??” 

“Trust yourself, Matsumoto-san. Stay calm. You know what to do.” 

Jun really didn’t. Then, maybe he did. The Monster lunged for him again and this time Jun found himself jumping a lot higher than he ever expected he could in heels, and with surprising grace. It still _felt_ awkward, but only in the way that Jun didn’t entirely feel in control of his own movements. Hey, at least he was still alive. 

Making for the spiral stairs that led down to the atrium’s lower level, Jun had to dodge more swipes of the thrashing creature before something seemed to register in him. There was room... he could do this. 

Jun felt himself waving the microphone about, a strange sort of choreography as if he were directing traffic, and then he was singing, and didn’t know why he was singing but he was, a song he didn’t know but _felt_ like he knew by heart anyway. 

“ _You are my soul, soul, always_ …” The song continued, and while Jun danced and sang, he felt the music taking form, the notes, the feeling of it becoming real, and reaching out toward the creature, his client, and her heart. 

The Monster screeched and flailed angrily as the music surrounded her… Then it was over. Jun watched in silent shock as his client collapsed to the floor at his feet, and the smoke Monster dissipated to nothing. 

“What... the hell just happened?” he said slowly. 

SOUL floated leisurely toward him. “You have succeeded, Matsumoto-san.” 

“This is ridiculous,” Jun tried again. 

His brain still didn’t want to accept everything that was happening to him. He was talking to a floating robot. He had on the _strangest_ outfit. Also, EXACTLY WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT THING THAT JUST TRIED TO KILL HIM? 

Before Jun could say any of this aloud, SOUL was already chiming at him. “Matsumoto-san... duck.” 

“Huh?” Not not sure what she meant, Jun turned around instead, just in time to see a knife come flying at him from somewhere on the second floor. _Seriously? The monster wasn’t enough?_

But then something collided with him. No, someone. Someone in a top hat, a cape, and a mask came flying out of _completely nowhere_ and knocked Jun out of the path of the spinning knife. 

It landed in the wall above their heads with a solid _thunk_. 

Jun looked at the young woman in the top hat who had just saved his life, and she looked back. 

Whoever threw the knife appeared to be gone when Jun finally looked away to check, and he didn’t get a very good look at them the first time. Someone in another weird outfit, maybe? He wasn’t sure. 

“Uh…” said Jun, feeling awkward. 

The girl climbed to her feet and offered him a hand. Which he took, because getting up was hard in these boots. He still watched her incredulously, not really sure what her deal was. 

“I was looking for something. It’s not here,” she told him. 

“O…kay?” Jun answered. That was vague. 

She continued anyway. “You’re _very_ interesting.” 

And that was a little creepy. Jun almost said so, but she was already walking away. He called after her instead. 

“Oi… thanks for saving me, I guess. Who are you anyway?” 

He thought for a moment she wasn't going to answer him, but as she neared the exit the woman spun, hiding her face with her cape rather dramatically. Jun thought she looked a bit like a peculiar vampire. “Tuxedo Mao.” 

“That’s weird!” he called after her. Seriously, what? 

But she was already gone. 

_Act One Epilogue_

In the empty atrium, Jun’s client awoke confused. Jun was long gone. She realized she was unable to remember anything from the day before. How strange… and what a frightening dream that had been. 

\--- 

_In a hidden pocket of an unknown dimension, concealed within the crystal castle of a dark realm, a powerful queen, regal and blond, was very annoyed._

_“What is this!? Who could possibly have ruined my plans!?”_

_It was just… unacceptable. Something would have to be done._

\--- 

“So,” Jun began calmly. He wasn’t sure why, but he was on the roof of the building now. The wind up here was kind of chilly on his legs, actually, and he felt pretty exposed. “Are you going to tell me what the hell all of… _this_ is about?” 

He waved a hand vaguely at himself, and all of his new accessories, sure the AI would be able to interpret his meaning, assuming she had some way of seeing him. As always, SOUL answered his questions calmly. 

“You are a soldier, Matsumoto-san. An Arashi soldier. It is your duty to protect this realm and those in it from the evil that would do them harm. From here, the battle must continue.” 

It wasn’t really what Jun wanted to hear. He was annoyed, and tired, and his feet were starting to hurt. He sighed in exasperation and pinched the bridge of his nose to try and ward off a headache. “This doesn’t make any sense.” 

“It is your destiny.” 

He didn't particularly want to stand there arguing with a floating orb on a roof. 

Jun frowned thoughtfully. “…Arashi, huh?” 

Why did that make him feel… surprisingly happy? 

Clearly, the intensity of strangeness in the last couple of days was starting to get to him. 


	2. Act Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The second solider is found! You should have seen that coming.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Unbeta’d because I do not currently have one, I apologize for any glaring errors, please let me know if you spot anything and I’ll fix it.
> 
> Plot borrowed h.e.a.v.i.l.y from PGSM/Sailor Moon, a tiny bit of Shugo Chara, and a miniscule amount of Mass Effect. With an Arashi twist. Because boys in skirts idk I felt like I needed to do this.

_Prologue_

_“Ami…” seethed the blond queen in her crystal castle, annoyed still. “Am I mistaken? Did I see that one of the Arashi soldiers has already activated?”_

_“Yes,” her loyal servant replied, head bowed before her queen. “The first has been revealed, Your Majesty."_

_“Then all of our plans are now at risk. We must not fail, Ami. We must harvest all of the human souls that we can. Do not falter now. One day soon, we will have gathered enough to give us the power to destroy all the Earth.”_

Act Two 

Thankfully, Jun had the day off. After the complete absurdity of the day before he had honestly considered just staying home, if only to give himself time to absorb all of this. That would have been nice, but today SOUL wasn’t allowing that. For some reason… they had to go to karaoke? 

He really wasn’t in a singing mood, but she was very persistent. 

“Since when do robots sing?” Jun grumbled a bit, hesitating just outside the entrance. Coincidentally it was the same place Jun had visited with his client the other day, not an unfamiliar place by any means. The neon-lit sign above its entrance depicting a slightly crooked crown in place of a name. 

SOUL was in his pocket again, and Jun felt the orb vibrating faintly at his question, her voice drifting muffled through his jacket. “There is something you must see.” 

After yesterday, Jun wasn't sure he wanted to see it. Earlier that morning, she had given him a little card, the same way she had given him that sparkly microphone, in a flash of blinding light. In shiny gold print the card proclaimed it was good for a year of karaoke at this particular establishment. None of this made any sense to him still, but he was way past trying to sort out any kind of logic in the orb’s instructions. 

“Fine, just keep quiet for a minute, please. I know this person. It’s weird if I walk in talking to myself.” 

SOUL said nothing, so Jun went in. As expected, he spotted a familiar face behind the counter, the girl who often worked in the afternoons when Jun would come in with clients, or friends. He greeted her brightly. “Hey, Maki-chan!” 

“Ah, Matsumoto-san. I saw you come in the other day, but I didn’t get to say hello. How are you?” 

“I’m fine, sorry about that, I was with a client, couldn’t really chat... Listen, sorry to bother you, but I got this in the mail. I guess it was a special offer maybe, it says I can come in free for a whole year? Is that really okay?” 

“Huh…” Maki frowned at the card Jun presented to her, and he awaited her judgement somewhat anxiously, but it only took her a moment to offer him a half-shrug. “Okay, then.” 

She waved him in, so Jun went on his way. 

He wasn’t sure, but as he neared the end of a hallway he had been down many times before, Jun thought something looked… very odd. One of these doors was in the wrong place. No, wait, there was... an _extra_ door. What the hell? 

“In here, Matsumoto-san.” 

Of course, it was the new door. SOUL had come out of his pocket and was hovering in front of its unobtrusive doorknob. Jun was reluctant, but he also didn’t want anyone to see SOUL, so he opened the door. As he stepped through, he was unaware that the door disappeared when it closed behind him. 

It was a karaoke room… but one unlike any that Jun had ever seen before. It had spotless white walls, bold rainbow-colored furniture, and a fluffy white carpet. There was a round table with a small cluster of chairs around it, and a small stage toward the center of the room. Most of the rooms in this place were barely bigger than closets, and they definitely didn't have proper stages. This room was not only much larger, but also far more luxurious in style. 

“What...is all this?” Jun finally asked, still taking it in. 

It was well decorated, he noted, though overall, an unnecessarily bright room. Jun noticed then the small private bar with fancy stools in various colors tucked against the far wall. Wistfully, he pondered making a drink, but it was probably too early. 

“This place was created for you, and for the other soldiers.” 

_This again?_ Jun was having a hard enough time dealing with the impossible things right in front of his face. Trying to factor in all the other strange details that SOUL was continuing to throw at him was becoming a conscious effort. 

“It is a safe place,” she finished simply. 

Well in that case... and if he was here anyway, then he might as well make himself comfortable. Jun took a seat at the table, and out of habit, found himself flipping through a nearby song catalog. He was only a few pages in when he spotted something within that could only make him smile. 

"Ah~ it’s Ninomiya," he noted, nearly glowing down at the image smiling up at him. It was nearly impossible not to be excited when his favorite artist was advertising the release of his newest album. 

“To keep this place safe, you must keep its existence a secret,” SOUL went on. 

Jun hummed and nodded, though he was only half-listening. The other half… was busy looking over the promotional photo. 

SOUL continued on with her speech anyway. “Your most urgent priority now is to locate and to activate the remaining soldiers. We will need all of their strength for the battles to come.” 

That sounded pretty serious. The thought crossed Jun's mind briefly that he should maybe be paying closer attention to this. 

“Once the activation of all soldiers is complete, you must find the Rainbow Crystal. This is the only way to save the world from darkness and destruction.” 

Jun thought Nino’s hair was looking pretty good lately. He must have gotten it cut. 

“Matsumoto-san, are you listening?” 

“Huh? Oh. Yes, right. Rainbow Crystal. Soldiers. Stop the evil. Got it.” He was living in a fever dream, he was pretty sure. 

“This is very important.” Jun imagined if SOUL could emphasize any of her speech at all, she would be doing it now. 

He still didn’t really understand what all of this had to do with him. Who made this decision that he should be responsible for fate of the world, anyway? 

“The Monsters will return and continue to take souls. You must stop them. Somewhere close the other soldiers are waiting to be activated. You must-” 

Jun’s phone started ringing. Checking the screen, a small shockwave of surprise nostalgia shot through him when it revealed the caller was an old friend of his. A friend from his youth, though they had grown rather distant in recent years, Jun remembered him extremely fondly. _I wonder what he wants?_

“I should get this…” he trailed off, feeling an urgency to answer the call so momentarily overwhelming that he didn't even wait for her response. 

SOUL hovered silently nearby, but Jun thought he could feel her judging him. Did flying robots judge? 

\--- 

As it happened, his friend had called to meet for lunch, having spotted an advertisement for party planning services that Jun had posted to one of his many social media accounts. He wanted to discuss getting Jun's help on an event he was planning. Jun didn't hesitate to accept, though with everything going on with him and… all of the strangeness, in retrospect he wasn’t sure it was a good idea. 

His rent payments, however, disagreed, so that was that. 

“Ohno-kun!” Jun greeted, when he spotted the man at a table just outside the café where they agreed to meet. “How’s it going?” 

“Ahh~ can’t complain. The kids keep me on my toes...” 

“Your students, or did I miss something big?” Not that Jun would be hugely surprised, Ohno was several years his senior and they hadn’t spoken in a few years but kids would still be a big thing to miss. 

“Oh! No. No, no. Not my kids. Student kids. They kind of feel like my kids sometimes, though, you know?" 

Jun actually didn't know, but he nodded anyway. It had been more than a little surprising to him that Ohno had decided to go into teaching in the first place, but... Ohno was creative, and kids liked creative. It was relatively easy for Jun to picture the imaginative chaos his friend's classroom likely contained, and the thought had him smiling. 

“So… what can I help you plan?” Maybe Ohno was getting married, Jun hadn’t done a wedding in a while. 

“Well I want to throw a party-” 

Jun had assumed that much at least. 

“-for the kids toward the end of the year? To reward them, you know, for getting through the year and for working hard. I want to do something nice for them, to have fun. Something really special. I thought you could help.” 

“That is… very sweet. I definitely want to help.” Jun found himself grinning more, almost forgetting for a moment about everything that was going on in his life. Almost. 

In his pocket, SOUL began to wiggle, and wiggle... until she popped out of his pocket and bounced in Ohno’s direction, rolling to a stop at his feet. 

“Eh? What’s this?” 

Ohno ducked down to pick up the ball, and Jun's breath caught in his throat for some reason. He watched Ohno hold it in his palm, giving it a squeeze, and glancing around the street with some confusion, as though someone might have dropped it walking by. He hadn't seen it fall from Jun’s pocket. Jun couldn’t help but be reminded of his own reaction to SOUL at their first meeting. In the bright sunlight outside of the café the dim flickers of yellow and purple light that danced deep inside the little orb were barely visible. He debated internally for a moment on just telling Ohno everything, having had no one other than SOUL to discuss it with, but he decided against, if only because he didn't have a clue how to even begin to explain. 

“I wonder if a kid lost it, maybe I should try to find the owner,” Ohno offered. 

Not knowing how to explain did not mean that Jun was prepared to let him wander around trying to find SOUL's nonexistent owner. “Oh… that’s actually mine, sorry. Fell out of my pocket.” 

“Ah! …Sorry, here.” 

Jun wasn’t sure what Ohno was apologizing for, but he watched Ohno rub his thumb over the orb, perhaps cleaning off a spot before handing it back. 

“Thanks," he said, feeling an odd, sparkling energy when his fingertips brushed Ohno’s hand as he took SOUL. He tucked her safely back into his pocket. He really wanted to ask her why she had decided to leave his pocket in the first place, but that would have to wait. At the moment Jun felt like he needed to explain to Ohno why he was carrying around what he clearly assumed was a kid's toy. 

“It’s ah… for a party I'm working on.” Smooth. 

But Ohno seemed to accept that unquestioningly, a tiny smile playing on his lips. “Speaking of parties…” 

“Oh! Yes. If you don't mind, make me a list of… some themes you might be interested in, any events, or specific foods or activities you might want to have, and I’ll come up with some ideas too… and we can go from there. Does that sound okay?” They had time to plan, since Ohno had thankfully not come to him with this request at the last minute, as many of his former schoolmates often did when they wanted Jun to plan their parties. 

“Okay,” Ohno agreed easily. “I’ll message you some of the stuff I was thinking about.” 

They finished lunch, the rest of which proceeded pleasantly and uneventfully. Jun talked about his work a bit, and Ohno talked about his work a bit. Jun began to feel a general sense of calm washing over him as he listened to his old friend describe a few of his classes' more recent projects. This was nice, wasn’t it? 

It certainly beat fighting monsters in heels, that was for sure. 

Jun’s mind may have wandered some when Ohno’s phone began to ring. The ringer was a Ninomiya song. Jun’s grin was all but instant, while Ohno silenced the call, and the song. “Work friend. I can call him back...” 

“You’re a fan of Nino? Isn’t he great?” Perhaps he sounded a bit too excited, but he could't take that back now. 

“He’s super great!” Ohno replied in kind, and then Jun was much less self-conscious about his excitement over this new shared interest. “Sometimes I play his albums for the kids when we're working, they like him too.” 

“Did you hear about the new album coming out?” 

And then they were off, enthusing together, and somewhat losing track of the time, until Ohno’s phone buzzed in his pocket, and he checked it properly. “Hey, I’m sorry, I should probably go. I have a few classes later this afternoon.” 

“Ah… I understand." Jun did his best to keep the sulk out of his voice, and smile instead. Ohno had been a welcome reprieve from SOUL's endless orders and warnings. "Well, don't forget to send me that list. Then I can get started planning for you.” 

“I won't! It was really good to see you again,” Ohno added, and Jun agreed, waving him off. 

When Ohno had gone, Jun felt SOUL vibrating oddly in his pocket, and he chanced a quick look around before pulling her out. She was glowing a little brighter, and there was another color now. Flickering with the yellow and purple, there was blue. 

“Oi, what's wrong with you?” 

“Nothing, Matsumoto-san.” SOUL said blankly. 

Jun laid his phone on the table to try to make it look like he had someone on speaker, should the waiter return to happen upon him speaking with her disembodied voice. 

“He is a soldier. He is the second soldier.” 

“What, seriously? ...Ohno-kun?” 

“Yes.” 

\--- 

Ohno's walk back to the school was short but pleasant. In the time before his next class began, he busied himself grading a familiar backlog of projects, and before he knew it, a crowd of tiny students had filed into his classroom to take their seats. Later that afternoon, his mind wandered back to his lunch with Jun, and that funny little ball he'd been carrying around. It was an odd thing, with some sort of weird lights. He wondered what it was for, and why it had felt so strange in his hand. 

“Ohno-sensei.” The class was staring at him owlishly. 

“Hmm? Oh… heh. Sorry. Where was I?” 

\--- 

That night, Jun was lounging in his bed, browsing his phone while SOUL hovered just above him, swirling and glowing as usual. 

“Matsumoto-san. May I ask a question?” 

That was kind of a shock. Jun couldn't remember her ever asking him anything before. She was usually giving him orders. 

“I guess,” he said after a moment. 

“Do you know Ohno-san well?” 

Jun frowned. “We were close at one time. I don’t know how well I really know him anymore.” 

“Do you believe he will be a good addition to our team?” 

“He’s pretty reliable,” Jun mused. He still didn’t quite know what to think of the fact that Ohno was the second soldier. What did that mean, exactly? Was Ohno… going to get an outfit too? 

That would be interesting. 

“Matsumoto-san, my sensors indicate that you are blushing.” 

“Shut up,” Jun whined. and flung a pillow in SOUL’s direction, but she swooped out of the way, and it missed her. 

\--- 

_Interlude_

In the latest hours of the night, the school that Ohno would be coming back to the next morning was silent, and dark, and empty. 

Nearly empty. Footsteps echoed down the wide tile hallways as Ami swept into the art classroom where Ohno spent a great deal of his time. Along the window sills of the shadowy room filled with empty desks were a plethora of different projects, figures, and drawings, some drying and some simply on display. 

There was one in particular, a malformed dog-like creature beside a strange, popsicle-shaped man, which Ami paused at. _This will do nicely…_

\--- 

When Jun woke the next day, something strange had happened. When he went to sleep the night before SOUL had been on his bedside table, beside his phone and his dazzling purple microphone. Now… there were two SOULs, and a blue microphone resting beside his own. It was also bejeweled and sparkly, just as his was. 

“Why are there two of you now?” Jun questioned the orbs. Both glowed brightly at him, and hovered side by side, bobbing out of time with each other, flashing intermittently blue, purple, and yellow. 

“One is for Ohno-san,” SOUL explained, and though both of them glowed, she still spoke with one voice. Jun wondered how exactly that worked, but he had more pressing questions at the moment. 

“So… why are you with me?” 

“You must give one of me to Ohno-san. He will require protection and guidance. He will require his key to transform.” 

“You mean the microphone?” Jun verified. 

“Correct.” 

“Okay…” Was there any way to do this without offering Ohno a serious explanation? But then, Jun supposed there would eventually need to be one anyway, if the fate of the world was depending on them. He would need time to think of the best way to approach this. 

“He must have them immediately.” 

“What, today? He has school during the day, I can’t just show up at his job.” 

“It is imperative that he receive the key as soon as possible. His life could be in danger.” 

_Great_ , Jun thought. _More danger._

But he didn't want Ohno to get hurt, and SOUL had been right about everything else... Jun crossed his fingers, and sent Ohno a quick text, asking to meet him at a nearby park before school started. 

\---

When Jun arrived at the park, Ohno was already waiting for him. 

“Jun-kun~ what’s up? You look tired.” 

“Ah… it’s early,” Jun explained away. He hadn't yet managed to re-acclimate himself to early mornings again after that last party, and there was a lot more on his mind than usual lately, to say the least. 

For example, how to explain to Ohno in… twenty minutes or less, everything he needed to know to understand how important it was that he take the sparkly microphone and the glowy ball. _Might as well just dive right in._

“This is all going to sound very weird,” Jun prefaced quickly, because there was no way he could ever begin to explain this any other way. 

At first, he watched Ohno's face carefully, but it didn’t seem like he was ready to run away, or call the police, which was a good sign. He explained about the ball that had fallen out of his pocket, how he had found it, and the strange happenings since that day. He started at the beginning, how the ball had started _talking_ , and at least some of what it said, which was about when Ohno’s eyebrows rose, and his expression remained slightly dumbfounded as the story progressed in ridiculousness. Jun pressed on, explaining as best he could about the AI, his client becoming the Monster, all of the warnings about the world being destroyed, and of course SOUL’s constant insistence that they were both some kind of special soldiers. He left out the part about the skirt, for the time being, since it was really the least strange part of the whole story at this point. 

Jun wasn’t sure if he was getting through to Ohno, but it was what SOUL had told him to do, and if it would keep Ohno out of harms way then he had to try. 

“A-anyway,” Jun finished. 

He felt justifiably embarrassed, but Ohno was just looking at him expectantly, so Jun rather abruptly shoved the blue sparkle microphone and one of the orbs into his hands. “Here. You'll need these. You need to keep them close. It’s really important… because the monsters can steal your soul.” 

Most people would probably have run, or at the very least backed away slowly. Ohno did neither. He peered down at the objects Jun had given him before opening the top flap of his bag to carefully deposit them. “Okay.” 

Jun stared. _Okay?_ It had taken Jun the better part of the last few days to even accept that he wasn't hallucinating it all, how was he so quick to accept all of that? Maybe Ohno thought it was some kind of game or joke like Jun originally had, but then again, if something happened it wouldn't take long for things to get really dangerous. 

Perhaps somewhat recklessly, Jun gripped Ohno’s shoulders, and looked him firmly in the eye. “This is very serious. I am not kidding.” 

“I believe you.” 

That wasn't really the answer Jun expected. “But... _why_?” he didn’t mean to ask, but he was almost exasperated with Ohno for believing him so easily, which didn’t make any sense at all. 

“You’ve never lied to me before, If you say it’s serious I believe you. I’ll keep them with me, okay?” 

Ohno sounded kind of concerned, and Jun could certainly understand why, he only hoped that he wasn't just being humored. 

“Good,” Jun answered reluctantly, because some time had passed, and he didn’t want to make Ohno late for school. 

He turned to go but thought better of it and pulled Ohno into a quick hug. “Be careful, okay? It’s seriously dangerous. I didn’t know until I did.” 

_Stop talking now. Walk away._

So he did, leaving a befuddled Ohno to watch him go. 

\--- 

Ohno was a bit worried about Jun. He seemed really stressed out. Though if everything he was saying was true, of course he _would be_ stressed out, wouldn't he? He wasn’t sure what to make of…everything. He wanted to pull out the items that Jun had given him and examine them more closely but it would have to wait until he got to school. If everything Jun said was true, this was a pretty big deal. 

But he was already running late. By the time he arrived at the building, the bell was ringing, and most classes were beginning. His students were going to wonder where he was if he didn't hurry. 

\--- 

Jun was ready to go home, but something still wasn’t right, and in fact felt very wrong. He could feel it like a tug in his chest, and it was impossible to ignore. 

“Oi, SOUL. I think I should go after Ohno-kun. I think he might be in danger.” Besides the fact that she had been telling him all morning that Ohno was in danger, of course. 

“As a soldier your instincts will sometimes overwhelm you. You should listen to them. They are there to help.” 

Well that settled that didn’t it. He needed to keep an eye on Ohno. 

\--- 

Circling around strange buildings trying to find a way in was getting to become a bad habit, and Jun really didn’t want to think about what kind of reaction there would be if he got caught creeping around an elementary school. 

What he did not expect, was to turn into a side courtyard, and run directly into someone. A woman. An annoyed woman. An annoyed woman who looked really familiar. 

_Ah. It’s the bad-day lady_ , Jun’s brain supplied. 

“Watch where you’re going!” she shot at him, and Jun sort of scowled automatically. 

“Do you always snap at the people you run into?” he shot back, and she scowled in return. 

“Only the annoying ones.” 

Jun felt her eyeing him suspiciously, and he suddenly worried she was in some kind of position of authority here. She could kick him out! Then Ohno would be on his own. 

“Ah… actually I’m looking for my friend. He’s a teacher. Art class?” It was worth a try, and maybe she could help. 

She was still kind of glaring at him. “You’re on the wrong side of the building.” She nodded to a nearby sign posted in the courtyard, with arrows pointing the way to various parts of the school. 

“Ah… that explains it.” It didn’t explain anything actually he was just circling and hoping for the best. At least she wasn’t ordering him to leave immediately. 

“You shouldn’t skulk around here, it’s weird.” 

Jun ignored her. He had to find Ohno soon, something felt really wrong. 

\--- 

As it turned out, Ohno’s students were not wondering what happened to him. Ohno’s students… were all passed out. 

_Panic. Panic! PANIC!_

Ohno didn’t know what to do, he ran to the closest child, shaking them gently, but they were out cold. They all were. He was thankful at the very least that he could tell they were all still breathing. 

“Ahh…” He needed to call someone, right now, and he needed to get them out of here. 

“Ohno-sensei…” 

Ohno turned at the purred sound of his own name and jumped. It was the principal, there in the room, lurking in a dark corner. Ohno knew his boss, and she was a lady always full of smiles and encouragement. 

She wasn’t smiling now. “Ooh it’s such a shame you’ve interrupted me, Ohno-sensei. Now… I will have to take your soul as well.” 

_Oh god, Jun was really telling the truth._

He watched, in mute horror, as the principal shifted and morphed before his eyes into a tall popsicle-shaped creature that looked oddly familiar to Ohno, but he was a bit too freaked out to try and figure it out now. He tried to get between her and the kids, but she lunged for him, so Ohno broke for the door, hoping she would follow him, and leave the children. 

She did. As he tripped back into the hallway, Ohno nearly fell over the body of another teacher lying prone on the floor, and when he turned to run, there were more students up the hall. Ohno really hoped they were only sleeping. He didn’t want to consider the alternative. 

When he reached the stairwell, Ohno slammed through the door, and it was thankfully empty. The creature ran at him, and Ohno, without thinking, ducked and shouldered, and sent it hurtling down a short flight of stairs. Hard. 

He had to squint through a sudden flash of light, and then the principal lay on the ground, and the creature she had been… Well it was still there, unfortunately, but Ohno felt incredibly thankful that at least whatever that thing was, it wasn’t in her anymore. 

It was getting up, heading toward him with heavy, lumbering stomps. Ohno realized he wouldn't last long against it in such a small space, so he forced open an exit door to the side courtyard. When he tried to run, his feet lost purchase in a flowerbed and Ohno went down. 

\--- 

Jun was still sort of lost, and that wrong, sick feeling was getting worse and worse. Maybe he should just follow that. 

Suddenly Ohno came tearing into the courtyard Jun was walking through and tripped over some flowers. A Monster lumbered after him, right on his heels. 

“Matsumoto-san.” came SOUL's quick warning. 

“Yeah, I got it.” Microphone. Cue the sparkles, and the ribbons. Arashi Power, time to do this. Hopefully the Monster would be distracted by all the commotion and leave his friend alone. Also Jun really hoped the whole de-clothing process was less revealing to any bystanders than it actually felt. 

“In the name of Arashi, I will punish you!” Jun recited as the transformation wrapped up its frivolity. 

The Monster was right on Ohno, and for a split second Jun could almost feel its grubby fingers clawing at his friend’s soul. He was not going to let that happen. 

“STOP!" 

Unfortunately, the Monster didn’t stop, so it was a good thing that Jun was already charging forward. He did some kind of flying kick thing that he didn’t know he could do, right over the Monster’s head, swinging his microphone around. At this point, he wasn’t actually sure what the microphone was for besides singing, but Jun willed it to do something, really _anything_ , and suddenly a bright whizzing projectile shot out from it and went hurtling toward the Monster. 

As the crescent of light made contact with its chest, the Monster stumbled precariously for a moment... and then teetered back into the deep basin of the courtyard’s fountain, sloshing water over the edge, and dragging Ohno down too. 

“ _Ack_ ," Ohno cried out, flailing slightly. 

Jun managed to get a hold on the front of Ohno's shirt just in time to drag him back out again as the Monster began messily dissolving into the fountain. Whatever had held it together was apparently not water proof. Jun pulled Ohno even further back from the carnage, to a spot where the grass was clear of Monster goo. 

He looked to Ohno then, who looked back at him in silent shock. 

“Are you hurt?” 

“'Don’t think so. I... ah. Well, thanks, Jun-kun. You look… ah.” Ohno began, quite obviously blushing. 

Before Jun could even tell his very good friend to shut up, there was an unearthly barking noise, and a massive looking clay dog clambered into the courtyard at top speed. It raced for the fountain, and Jun watched in slight horror as some kind of weird beam erupted from this Monster’s forehead, hit the puddle of Monster in the fountain, and suddenly, the popsicle man was reforming. 

_Seriously!_? 

It seemed to be taking awhile for the dog-Monster to reform the popsicle-Monster... Just not long enough. 

“How do I do it?” Ohno whispered quickly. 

Jun blinked at him, even in the chaos momentarily distracted by the intense wrinkle of concentration on Ohno's brow. 

“The thing...the thing you did. With all the sparkles. How do I fight like you?” 

The Monster had finished reforming. Now, both began lumbering toward them, steadily and menacing. 

“No, I got this. It's dangerous, you could get hurt. You should run.” Some part of Jun was aware he was being stubborn, but he was also shook up from seeing Ohno nearly lose his soul a moment ago. What if he couldn't save him this time? 

“You could get hurt too! I’m older than you anyway,” Ohno pointed out with a fair amount of exasperation. They were backing up, which was buying them time, but it wouldn’t be enough. The courtyard wasn't that big. “I need to protect my students, please let me help you.” 

Jun couldn’t keep saying no. “The microphone... You have it?” 

“Ah…it's here- ” Somehow, Ohno’s bag was still intact, if not a bit soggy, and when he dove his hand in, he found exactly what he was looking for. 

The microphone's dark blue jewels glinted in the sunlight, and then Ohno’s transformation began. 

“ARASHI POWER – FOR DREAM!” 

“It’s exactly the same,” Jun murmured, but the transformation wasn't exactly the same, it was only the words. Jun had never actually seen his own transformation, not from the outside obviously, and in the moment it was always pretty impossible to get a sense of what was happening. 

The blinding glare of the transformation did seem to be slowing down the Monsters, at least temporarily, like a proper distraction. The colors flashed bright blue instead of purple, still full of sparkles and light, but with a swirl of water, an iridescent wave which drew up out of the fountain to dance with Ohno as well. 

_So weird,_ Jun marveled slightly. He was pretty impressed by the overall aesthetic. 

“In the name of Arashi, I will punish you!” 

Ohno landed with a shimmer and a soft splash of water. Jun noted that his hair was now unexpectedly blue, and a bit longer than his normal style, though nowhere near as long as Jun's. 

“Jun-kun…” Ohno trailed off. He seemed to be in shock again. 

Jun understood, but... “Think you got this? We have to sing now.” 

Ohno had always had a good voice, Jun thought he was more than capable of making this work. Hopefully. Then, it wasn't as though they had much of a choice. 

“I’ll do my best,” Ohno assured. They both would have to. 

The Monsters had moved to circle them, but somehow, when Jun met Ohno’s gaze, they found a near perfect rhythm. They spun and kicked simultaneously as they raised their microphones to sing, and each Monster stumbled back to avoid their kicks. It was just enough to give them room to dance. 

_You are my soul, soul…always…_

It felt like something still was missing, but Jun couldn’t hear what it was yet. The song was better now than it was when he sang it alone. He was sure the other soldiers could only improve it more. 

As the song progressed their notes lashed at the Monsters, and the sky above them darkened to a foreboding grey. A crack of thunder split the sky, and then it began to rain. But it did not just rain, it _poured_ , thick heavy drops under which the Monsters, overwhelmed, began to dissolve away. 

Jun and Ohno watched until the rain had washed away every last trace of them from the courtyard. 

“We did it,” Ohno offered quietly. 

“You okay?” he checked. In the wake of all that just happened, he could understand how Ohno wouldn't be. Jun wasn't even entirely sure he was okay with it all. Though it had helped, this time, to do it with a friend. 

Ohno nodded. “Yep…” 

There was a moment of awkward silence wherein they both tried not to stare at each other too obviously, which Jun proved to be much better at than Ohno. 

“So... I’m a soldier now, huh?” 

“Arashi soldier,” Jun corrected, his smirk more than a little playful, which only made Ohno laugh. 

“Arashi soldier, then.” 

Neither man noticed, as they were too busy beaming at each other, but lurking in a deserted wing of the school, watching from an open window, Tuxedo Mao hummed to herself. “Looks like there’s two now…” 

_Act Two Epilogue_

Elsewhere... but more specifically at the park, Ami was formulating another plot. 

She could not allow herself be defeated again, her Queen would not be pleased. It was time to _really_ test these 'soldiers' now. There could be no more playing around. 

Yes. This pile of leaves would be the key to her evil plan. 

\--- 

Not so very far away from Ami's Evil Leaves... a flame flickered in the quiet dark of a room, and Sakurai Sho gazed steadily into it, seemingly unbothered by its heat. 

“Something is coming,” he murmured gravely to himself, as there was no one else there to hear him. “...something dark approaches.” 

_To be continued…_


	3. Act Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The tale of the missing girls AND the coming of Sakurai Sho (not that way) AND Jun and Ohno share a bed, briefly (but also not that way. Yet?). Scary leaf piles are afoot.

Act Three

Once the chaos at the school had ended, and the Monsters were no longer an imminent threat, there was finally time to deal with the weird reality in which Jun and Ohno now found themselves. After the downpour in the courtyard quickly dissipated, they were changed back into their original clothes (and hair), and dried as well. All of this somehow orchestrated by the little floating balls, and some bright lights. Ohno thought it best not to question the 'how' of it all. 

There was also his classroom full of children that he really needed to check on. 

There were many things he wanted to discuss, things he had to say to Jun, and probably things that Jun wanted to say to him, but Ohno needed to be sure that everyone in the building was coming around and safe. Jun understood, so they agreed to meet once he had finished with school for the day. 

Ohno said goodbye with a dazed sort of wave, along with a promise to stay in touch. The orb, who introduced herself to him as SOUL, had zoomed back into his bag to rest alongside the newly acquired microphone…wand…thing, until his workday was through and he could address them. 

No one at the school seemed to remember the Monsters, though many seemed to sense that something strange had happened. The principal seemed fine, which was a huge relief. Ohno had been very worried that she was hurt falling down the stairs, but she didn't remember anything that happened either. She showed no signs of being injured, or even the slightest bit bothered, aside from having the same dazed look as everyone else in the school, and as the day wore on that too faded away. 

Inevitably it was pretty hard for Ohno to keep his mind from wandering back to his eventful morning, but he did his best to stay focused on his lesson plans. The kids even made him laugh here and there. A few times, during the more spirited parts of class, he almost forgot that his life had fundamentally changed. 

\--- 

Jun decided immediately that Ohno needed to see the… headquarters? The hideout? …The karaoke room. When Ohno was done with work for the day, that was where he insisted they go. They decided to walk, so that as they did, Ohno was able to hold SOUL to his ear, and she could give him a summary of the state of their mission in clearer terms than Jun had time for that morning. 

Ohno nodded sagely the whole time, and Jun had to try not to laugh at him. 

When they arrived, Maki was working again, and Jun greeted her, and presented his pass, and she waved them through. Ohno also provided his newly acquired pass, though somewhat more uncertainly. The whole business with the passes felt a bit shady, that was true, but SOUL insisted it was for the best, as they would need to access the room often. 

"Come on," Jun tried not to drag him down the hallway, really just excited to not be the only one to experience the full extent of all of this absurdity. 

He pointed out the oddness of the position of the door, how there was no way it could possibly fit where it was, and that it just didn't make sense. It was not physically possible. 

After a moment of consideration, Ohno shrugged at him. "None of this really makes any sense though, does it?" 

"...No, I guess that's a good point," Jun agreed somewhat reluctantly, leading the newest Arashi soldier through the impossible door. "This is actually pretty nice… it's got a whole stage and a bar and everything." 

Without much fanfare, Ohno nodded his approval and promptly made himself comfortable on the couch. Jun thought he was accepting this all a little _too_ easily, but then Ohno had always been relatively unbothered by a lot of things that Jun tended to worry about. 

From Ohno's pants pocket, some muffled noises emerged, and what appeared to be a struggle. 

"Ah! Sorry, SOUL-chan," Ohno mumbled, helping to tug her free. 

Jun failed to stifle his laugh, watching Ohno extract the orb until he realized where he was staring and decided the wall looked very interesting all of a sudden. 

"Ohno-san, Matsumoto-san." 

It was Ohno's SOUL node, now freed and floating in the air between them, flickering faint colors. 

"Yes...?" he prompted her to continue. 

"At this time, I must request that you both participate in a game." 

"Game?" Jun repeated. He didn't think this was really the time for games. Didn't they have evil to defeat? But he had mostly learned at this point that arguing with SOUL was fruitless, so they were probably going to do it anyway. 

"What's this about?" Ohno questioned her. 

In a flash of light, two desks and two chairs with two identical buzzers now occupied the space where their table had just been moments ago. It was all very sudden, even considering Jun was starting to get used to her just creating things from nowhere. 

"I will ask you now to participate in a quiz game regarding the nature of your positions as Arashi soldiers, and your mission as a group." 

Jun thought that this sounded like pretty heavy subject matter for a quiz game... but hey, if you didn't make light of the potential end of the world whilst trying to prevent it, what was the point, really? He thought it probably made sense to test them too, if she was planning on entrusting them with the fate of the world. 

"Fine," he agreed, and dropped down at one of the stations. Ohno was already attentively seated at the one across from him, looking much more prepared than Jun was feeling. 

"Please hit your buttons when you know the correct answer, then, state your answer. And... Start." 

It was strange because SOUL sounded as unexcited about the quiz as she did about everything else. It was a little difficult to get enthusiastic, but Jun gave it his best effort. 

SOUL began with the first question. "How many Arashi soldiers have not yet been found?" 

Both Jun and Ohno banged on their buzzers a little too hard. Ohno's lit up first, and Jun tried not to be annoyed, since he definitely knew this one. 

"Ohno-san?" 

"Two?" he suggested uncertainly. 

"Correct." SOUL started flying in circles, blurring a trail of her light within to effectively make an 'O' in the air, and Jun gave her credit for creativity. 

"Next question. What is your mission?" 

Jun definitely knew the answer to that one. He banged his button, and his buzzer flashed first. "To defend the city and stop the evil Monsters from stealing the souls of innocent people." Obviously. 

_BZZZZZ_. 

The wrong buzzer was loud and abrupt and both men jumped at the suddenness of it. Jun hadn't even known SOUL could get that loud. 

"What." He was lost (and annoyed), how was that not the right answer? 

"Ohno-san?" SOUL continued as if he hadn't said anything. 

Ohno considered his answer for a long moment before taking a chance. "To find that Rainbow Crystal thing... and to find our true selves?" 

From across the desks, Jun squinted at him skeptically. He was fairly certain that Ohno had just made up that last part about true selves. 

But it didn't matter, because SOUL seemed to find it acceptable. 

"Correct," she said vacantly. 

Jun would be more annoyed that he was losing if it weren't so charming that Ohno looked pretty proud of himself as the quiz progressed. He remembered the thing about the Rainbow Crystal now, obviously he had just forgotten to mention it. He also realized he should probably be paying closer attention to SOUL when she talked to him, and less time on his phone looking up the latest news on Ninomiya. 

SOUL was talking now, actually, and Jun realized again he was supposed to be listening. 

"The Rainbow Crystal is incredibly powerful. It is extremely dangerous. The Rainbow Crystal has the potential to destroy the world. It must be protected." 

Truthfully, Jun was struggling a bit to understand how a crystal of any kind could destroy the world but... he believed her. He definitely wasn't going to risk not believing her. 

SOUL continued. "There is another matter of importance." 

The screen of the nearby karaoke machine lit up drawing their attention, and SOUL zipped out of the way to allow them to watch the video that began to play. It resembled a news reel, playing on a continuous loop. As they studied the footage, a masked blond figure in a uniform eerily similar to theirs darted across the screen. 

Jun frowned as a thought occurred to him. "Is this... that vigilante person that's been all over the news? What's the name?" 

"I heard about that!" Ohno cut in with surprising enthusiasm. "Goes by 'N'... or something?" 

Weird moniker, it wasn't exactly helpful in figuring out their identity, either. 

"Do you think they're friendly?" Jun asked. Watching the screen, the poor lighting in the footage and the quickness of... whoever that was made it hard to get a good look at their face. Jun was pretty sure they were wearing a mask too. 

"Unknown." SOUL replied. Jun sighed in the brief pause before she went on. "You are advised to be cautious until more information is available. It is extremely vital that you keep your nodes and keys with you at all times. Many lives depend on you." 

And there it was again, Jun thought, it was all on them. He would perhaps be more exasperated if it didn't feed his ego just a little bit to be needed. It wasn't _only_ about him, of course, he was only one piece of the puzzle they made together. 

"You must trust your instincts," SOUL instructed. "They will help you to fight the darkness and find the others." 

Fight the darkness, find the others. Trust their instincts. It wasn't much of a plan, but it was perhaps the start of one. They would need to be on their toes… but it was also undeniably exciting not to know what, or more specifically who, would come next. 

\--- 

In another part of the city, across a short bridge and up a hill from the foliage-heavy park, a shrine was hidden. At this particular shrine, a young man sat alone in a dark room with an open flame. 

Though his grandmother was the caretaker of this shrine, Sho had called it home for many years now, and helped to keep things running from day to day, and when his grandmother was travelling. As a novice priest himself, he wore the appropriate robes, light folded layers of white and blue fabric, usually kept neat, and regularly washed. It might have been a bit concerning to be sitting so close to a fire with all of his robes' many layers, but Sho was not particularly concerned. He was well familiar with this fire. 

At the moment, he was deeply engrossed in every crack and wave, wriggle and flare of the flames. Sho had seen many things in these flames, and some of what he had seen within the heart of the fire filled him with dread. 

\--- 

_In Sho's vision a girl walked along a dim and twisty path in the forest near the park. She wasn't anyone that he recognized, so Sho guessed there was some other connection or reason the fire was showing him this. Branches from the surrounding trees shifted and snapped all around her. A swirling wind stirred, and as it did, began lifting a multitude of dried and fallen leaves up from the ground to dance along with it._

_It was a beautiful sight at first…_

_…but then the leaves swirled higher, and higher still. The wind picked up much stronger now, frightening the girl from her thoughts, enough to look up…_

_…at the dark, jagged tear appearing before her. High above her head, and just below the tallest layer of the treetops, the air ripped apart, much too suddenly to react, or resist, or to run. The rip glowed, flashed, and then seemed to crack further still as long, metallic arms darted through the tear. The arms reached out from a dark ether in that hole, and dragged the girl through it at terrifying speed._

_Then the rip closed, leaving behind no trace that it, or the girl, had ever been there in the first place._

\--- 

Sho snapped out of the vision all at once, back once more in the orange glow of the fire. Safe… but maybe not for long. What little he had seen in the vision wasn't enough to help him help the girl. While the flames frolicked, he continued to watch them, praying for more information. 

\--- 

A few days passed. 

Jun managed to pick up a couple of last-minute clients and in the bustle, it was almost easy to forget about the weird things that were happening to him… or, it might have been, if he hadn't had SOUL reminding him all the time that they really, _really_ needed to find the other soldiers. 

Beyond the occasional aggravation, it was an uneventful few days. Jun reveled in throwing himself into someone else's needs rather than his own for awhile, which was one of the reasons he liked his job so much in the first place. His clients always wanted things, and Jun was good at making what they wanted come to life. That's what a good party planner did, or maybe a good anything-planner. 

When there had been no unusual activity or threatening Monsters after a few days, Jun sent Ohno a message, just to check in. He wanted to be sure nothing strange had happened that Ohno failed to mention. Jun was pretty sure SOUL would have told him if something was going on, but he wanted to ask anyway. Mostly it worried him a bit that Ohno had been so quiet about everything. But when he reached out, Ohno responded back immediately, and they agreed to meet for lunch on a day when they were both available. 

Since Ohno only had a limited time for lunch, Jun met him at the school. The two of them walked the short distance to a nearby café together which gave them more time to talk. 

They exchanged greetings, asked about work, and talked about inconsequential things which did not involve the fighting of Monsters, or the finding of missing soldiers. In fact, they had gotten so sidetracked having a normal conversation for most of the walk there, and most of the wait for their food, that they forgot they even had important, world-saving things they could be discussing. 

Inevitably though, they ran out of other things to talk about. 

"So… what's up?" Ohno questioned around an impressive mouthful of rice. 

"Nothing," Jun admitted after a moment. "I think I'm just anxious, nothing's really happened since the school. Is that weird? Have you felt anything?" 

Ohno seemed to consider this while he chewed. "I don't think so. It is really weird, just waiting around for people... and Monsters, and we don't know who we're waiting for, really." 

Jun nodded into his milkshake, the healthiest of lunches. He'd had a serious sweet tooth lately and he suspected it might be stress-related. 

They fell into a companionable silence. 

Jun's mind was running through questions as his straw hit the bottom of an empty glass. Who were they missing? Would he know when he saw them? He already knew Ohno, they were friends, were the other soldiers also going to be people he knew? … He really hoped they weren't assholes, because that would be unfortunate. 

He hadn't noticed the group of young girls in the corner table come in at first, but it was impossible not to hear their conversation, and it drew him out of his thoughts. It was what they were talking about in particular that drew Jun's notice. He nudged Ohno's foot beneath the table and nodded in the girls' direction as subtly as he could. 

"Did you hear? Another girl went missing yesterday," one of them said sounding, Jun thought, less concerned than she ought to be given the subject matter. 

"Seriously? That's like six now..." another responded, and she at least sounded appropriately scared. 

_Six? Six girls are missing?_

Across the table from him Ohno's eyes widened a bit as the pieces clicked into place and he looked ready to say something but Jun held up a finger. Wait. Listen. 

"It's seriously creepy. They just disappear... and then no one knows _anything_. My parents aren't letting me go anywhere else after school now. I have to go straight home." 

"My aunt says she heard a rumor that the girls were all _cursed_ by an evil priest. She said the priest comes from the shrine by the park..." The girl who spoke seemed to be reveling in the telling, and enjoying the way the other girls seemed to shrink back in fear at the thought of such terrible things. It appeared she approved of their reactions, because she continued her story. "She says, the priest is angry and locked away in the temple… so angry that he curses _anyone_ who gets too close!" 

"Stop it~ already... that's enough," said one of the other girls. 

Jun thought the story sounded creepy, but also a little bit preposterous. Then again, a lot of strange and preposterous things had been happening lately, so he wasn't about to rule anything out. 

The girls continued their game of scare and be scared. Jun toned them out, his mind working over their story, and exactly how much of it might be based in fact. 

"You think it's a Monster? The angry priest?" Ohno murmured, the questions quiet enough that only Jun could hear them. 

"I don't know. It's definitely... weird enough," he conceded. It was impossible to be sure with so little information. 

If what SOUL had said was true, their instincts should be able to help them with this, but his instincts didn't seem to be having any particular feelings on the matter one way or the other. Ohno didn't seem to have any ideas either. For her part, SOUL had been particularly unhelpful in the advice department as of late, not that she'd ever been that good at it to begin with. 

Jun wondered if she was listening to them now, but he didn't want to ask her in the middle of an increasingly busy cafe. He waited until they had paid and were on the walk back to Ohno's school before he brought up the subject of the priest and his curses again. 

"It's worth looking into, don't you think?" he questioned, both to Ohno, and SOUL if she was listening. "If it is a Monster... we might be the only ones who can help. If there are girls going missing, and we can help, we need to help, right?" 

He looked to Ohno, who appeared ready to answer him, but because he was looking at Ohno, Jun wasn't looking where he was going, and he ran into someone coming the other way. Their shoulders clipped fairly hard and he stumbled back in surprise. 

"Ah- sorry!" Jun apologized immediately, because it was so clearly his fault. 

The guy, for Jun now saw that it was a guy in a grey t-shirt and jeans, looked mildly irritated. He was shorter than Jun, and taller than Ohno by maybe an inch or two in either direction. He eyed them both for what felt like a weirdly prolonged moment in which the three of them considered each other, but nobody said anything. 

Instead of responding to Jun's apology, the man turned away from them, continuing on the way he had been going. Even after he walked away, they did not immediately continue on to the school. Ohno bit his lip uncertainly in Jun's direction. They were both mulling something over. 

"Did that feel strange to you?" Jun asked as though hoping Ohno would confirm that he wasn't just making things up in his head. 

"Yeah… it was definitely pretty strange," Ohno agreed without a moment of hesitation. 

Ohno would be late if they stood around any longer, but when they turned to continue on their way, Jun stepped on something. 

It didn't break or crack under his shoe, and he nearly slipped on it. Stepping back revealed a bracelet of stone beads laying only marginally scuffed at their feet. Of all of the beads on the bracelet, three of them were square and red, carved each with a single letter. 

_SHO_ it read in all capitals. Jun picked it up. 

"You think that guy dropped it?" Jun asked. 

Ohno shrugged uncertainly. "I dunno. I didn't see it come off… " 

"I'm sorry, but do you mind heading the rest of the way back alone? If it is his, I want to return it." It was an impulse that hit him suddenly and strong, Jun was not going to question his instincts now. He just had this feeling... 

Ohno, of course, didn't mind. He even quirked a smile watching Jun jog off in the same direction the strange man went. He had a feeling too. 

\--- 

Sho's mind was not really focused on his destination. His mind was on that guy who bumped into him, and the other guy with him. Something about them was bothering Sho, but he couldn't quite sort out what it was, and that was bothering him too. Did they have something to do with the girl from his vision? 

He followed familiar paths through the park, heading toward the hill upon which his family's shrine was located. As the wind picked up around him, Sho passed under the bare wooden beams of an aging _torii_ and wandered deeper into the trees. 

\--- 

_Interlude_

_In an unhappy pocket of a nothing-dimension, in the dingy fog of a park which could have been the park that Sho was just walking through but wasn't entirely, the missing girls were in trouble._

_The girls were all unconscious. Six girls arranged in an ominous circle in the dull grass and dead leaves, and around them, the Monster danced happily, and waited for its last victim._

\--- 

_Interlude Part II_

_In yet another, much darker dimensional pocket, inside of a glinting castle of crystal, a meeting was being held._

_"Soon, we will have enough," Ami said to her queen, and her eagerness was as audible as it was disturbing. "Seven virtuous souls…they will give us the energy we need; their souls, their power will be strong."_

_"Do not fail me again, Ami. I will not be so forgiving this time."_

_"Yes, Your Majesty."_

\--- 

"Where the hell did he go?" Jun muttered to himself. He was a little irritated. He hadn't really thought there was enough time for the man to get so far ahead of him, and yet Jun had lost him in the park somehow anyway. 

He could almost feel the trees growing thicker around him the deeper he went. 

That was weird, right? 

He tried to stay on the path, and to keep his eyes peeled, unconsciously rolling the beads of the bracelet between his fingers as he meandered. 

Jun wasn't _nervous_ , and he definitely wasn't scared. He was trying _not_ to think about the stories of the cursed priest. That chill down his back was only the wind... Or so he told himself. 

\--- 

Sho made it back to the shrine in one piece. 

When he returned, he took the time to change from the normal clothes he usually wore into the city to his far more comfortable robes. Besides the tradition of it all, it helped to be comfortable when he was trying to commune with the fire. 

Once more, Sho sat before the flames in the quiet temple. 

If he looked hard enough, perhaps he could see something to help him understand what was up with those two guys, something that might explain the odd feelings about them he couldn't quite shake… 

\--- 

Jun passed under a few old looking _torii_ as he headed along a path he didn't recognize. Before long, he found himself trailing up a hill… and right into the courtyard of a shrine. He was fairly certain at this point that it was precisely the shrine that those girls had been talking about in the cafe, and he had a very uncomfortable feeling about it all. 

_I'm not scared. There's nothing to be scared of… Cursed priests are not a real thing._

His own reassurances made him feel marginally better, at first, but then the trees shook, and the wind loudly whistled through them in a sudden sharp gust of wind. 

Jun nearly jumped out of his skin when a low voice cut through that whistling. "Who's there?" 

The priest that emerged from the shrine did not look amused. At first Jun didn't recognize the priest as the same man he had bumped into on the street. He also didn't notice the look of genuine confusion on the priest's face. 

Mainly because Jun was already hurrying out of the shrine's courtyard as quickly as he could without running outright. He hurried back down the path, and back down the hill, and he didn't look back. Jun didn't stop until he saw other people again, having returned to the relative safety of the park. 

Now that he wasn't in fear for his life, Jun made the connection. Was that guy actually an evil priest, cursing young innocent girls...? It would explain the strange feeling when they collided earlier. His mind was far too busy racing with questions to consider that he might just be jumping to conclusions. Why did he go up there all by himself? If they were going to face a Monster they should face it together, obviously. He should probably tell Ohno about what happened, then they could decide together what to do, instead of just… rushing into danger. 

That seemed like a much wiser plan. When he finally made it home later that afternoon, Jun immediately messaged Ohno to let him know he had something to discuss, and Ohno promised to stop by after work. 

\--- 

Ohno ended up staying at school late trying to grade some clay figures his students had created. It was hard for Ohno to resist just giving them all good grades, especially when his students always made so much of an effort to be creative. However there were still a few kids who made... a less than stellar effort, and a few students whose talent for art seemed to shine bright. 

He always gave them little stickers on their grade sheets. 

This round though... there were a surprising number of dogs and weird popsicle-shaped men amidst the clay figures. That freaked him out a bit, possibly more than it should have. It was likely just the kids' subconscious dealing with memories they weren't supposed to have, or so Ohno supposed. 

The sun was already set by the time he arrived at Jun's place. A tiny apartment in a building full of many others just like it, actually much smaller than Ohno pictured. He supposed it was more of a practical choice for Jun, who didn't always have steady work. At the moment, Jun was lounging on his bed still holding that stone bracelet he had picked up earlier, and fidgeting with the beads. Ohno perched slightly awkwardly on a small stool nearby and waited for him to explain what this was about, since it seemed like Jun had a lot on his mind, if the knit of his eyebrows was anything to go by. 

The silence stretched on a bit, before Jun finally broke it. Ohno listened with open interest as he recounted his trip to the shrine, the wildness of the wind, and the sudden appearance of a priest in Shinto robes who had startled Jun enough that he left without even giving back the bracelet. 

It wasn't like Jun to scare quite that easily, so he imagined it must have been a very unnerving experience. Then, Ohno had felt a bit uneasy after hearing the tale of the girls who were going missing, and the cursed priest. Visiting that very same shrine alone? No, thank you. Even if… 

"I dunno if I really believe in curses," he mused aloud. 

For his trouble, Jun sent him a rather unimpressed look that only just stopped Ohno from outright snickering at him. 

"But I could be wrong," he added quickly. "I mean, we fight Monsters so... curses aren't that much weirder." 

"Exactly," said Jun. "I didn't want to take any chances." 

_That's reasonable of him,_ Ohno thought. 

"I think I should go back tomorrow," Jun continued. 

"Hrm," Ohno hummed. That seemed decidedly less reasonable, but then... they hadn't gotten answers to any of their questions yet. They'd only found more questions. 

But the conversation had jogged his memory. "Ah- I forgot to tell you, I overheard some of the other teachers discussing the missing girls, and I think I heard someth-" 

"Wait! I'm sorry," Jun cut in before Ohno could tell him anything else. 

Jun was patting his bed, which he was already crawling off of, while Ohno did his level best not to watch him do that. He promptly forgot whatever it was he meant to say in the first place. He didn't think Jun was really listening anyway, actually, the younger man still seemed a bit anxious over whatever had happened at the park earlier. 

"You've been sitting on that stool for like an hour and that thing is really uncomfortable... Here- sit over here, it's much better. I'm being a really bad host, let me get you a drink, you want beer?" Jun's head disappeared into what Ohno had first assumed to be a closet and heard the distinct sound of a refrigerator opening, and the familiar clink of bottles. 

"...Sure." He wouldn't turn down beer. And if he was being invited... 

Ohno stood and stretched a bit, twisting until he heard his back give a satisfying pop. then he was shuffling over to plop down on the edge of Jun's bed. It was undeniably much more comfortable. 

He watched the younger man open both bottles before accepting one, and Jun clinked the bottom of his bottle against the neck of Ohno's with a sort of half-grin. "Cheers." 

"Cheers?" Ohno clinked back. He wasn't sure what they were toasting to, but he wasn't really complaining either. 

\--- 

That same evening, elsewhere in the city, a blond figure darted from building to building, speeding over rooftops, each leap graceful enough that for a few moments, it nearly felt like he was flying. 

But he always had to come back down. 

His SOUL trailed behind him, not quite fast enough to keep up, which made him have to slow down more often than he would have liked. It was like racing someone at Mario Kart, and getting so far ahead that you lost them completely, and he didn't want to risk losing her just now. 

He had important work to do, but the slowing down was getting to be troublesome. 

Pausing at the edge of a tall building, he waited for her to catch up. 

"They will be looking for you soon, if they are not already." 

"I know." 

Because he _did_ know, and he could feel it, like something waiting to happen, at the edge of anticipation. Something big was coming. He just didn't know when. 

\--- 

When Ohno left Jun's place, Jun was asleep. He had actually fallen asleep on Ohno's shoulder, a few swallows of beer still left in the bottom of the bottle in his hands. Ohno never had gotten around to telling him what he heard about the mystery, but it could wait. He finished his own beer, and then he 'rescued' Jun's and finished that too. 

He was careful shifting Jun the other way, toward the pillows and Jun sort of unceremoniously fell into them with an unintelligible sound. Well. That worked. Jun must have been super tired. 

Ohno set the empty bottles in Jun's tiny kitchen sink, sent the sleeping man one last amused smile, and let himself out. 

\--- 

It wasn't until early the next morning that Jun finally stirred from a deep sleep. He couldn't remember Ohno leaving, and he was kind of embarrassed about that, but then he didn't think Ohno would mind too much. He hadn't even been drunk, he'd just been incredibly tired, and Ohno's shoulder had been incredibly comfortable and… sleep happened. 

Jun thought that he might have been dreaming, but he couldn't remember the dream now. Crows and leaves and grass and… propellers? 

That didn't make any sense. 

There was so much on his mind lately Jun supposed it was inevitable that his dreams would get a bit odd. Hopefully that was all it was, because there had been a very ominous feeling to the dream. 

It was still early enough that Jun felt confident he could go through with his plans to return to the shrine. He felt exceedingly silly for getting so freaked out the day before. He blamed the wind, and the extremely effective storytelling of the girl from the cafe. He was going to keep it together this time. He was going to actually do what he went there to do, and if he had to fight a Monster... then he would fight a Monster. 

He showered, dressed, and found himself within the hour walking again up the hill path which led to the shrine. Jun fiddled with the beads on the bracelet as he climbed, somewhat lost in his thoughts. When he reached the top of the hill, he was rather surprised to encounter a small crowd of angry girls. 

Not only was it unexpected, it likely was not going anywhere good. Then again, at least they weren't angry at _him_. They appeared actually to be very angry with the priest guy from yesterday, the one who had possibly lost his bracelet, and might in fact be an evil priest. 

In the pale light of morning the man looked completely harmless. He did not appear to be an evil priest, in fact he was not very scary at all. As it happened, he was looking a little scared himself at the moment, if not a bit annoyed. 

"We told you to stop cursing people with your weird magic, didn't we?" One of the girls was saying. They really did seem outraged, but then, fear made people react in strange ways. 

"Whoa- whoa…hey, I'm not cursing anyone, I don't curse people!" the guy was saying. "You're _completely_ mistaken." 

"Then what was all that weird stuff, huh? How can you always know what's going to happen, unless you're the one actually _doing_ it?" The girl seemed to think her arguments were foolproof, but her questions were not actually questions at all, only more accusations. "We've been watching this place, and we saw someone run away yesterday. I bet you were trying to put a curse on them too." 

Jun couldn't help but wonder where these kids' parents were, since they all looked like they should be in school, and also like they were about to beat the crap out of this guy. He didn't feel right just standing there and watching that play out. 

"I'm the one you saw running away yesterday," he chimed in quickly, somewhat inserting himself between the small mob and the man, who was now looking at Jun a little dumbfounded. 

Jun gave the girls his most charming smile, and added in a little wave for good measure. "Hello~" 

"Huh?" said the angry girl who had been doing most of the talking. None of the other girls seemed quite brave enough to say anything at all. 

_I got scared by some wind and some rumors_ , seemed like a bad excuse. 

"I wasn't cursed, see? I just ah, realized I forgot something at my house… so I had to get home very quickly." Jun wasn't sure that was entirely convincing, maybe if he smiled again, they'd accept it anyway. "I'm perfectly fine. I'm not cursed at all." 

Except maybe in the way that he always seemed to get himself into bizarre situations lately, but that was another matter. 

"Shouldn't you all be going to school?" he added, when the girls seemed uncertain what to do now that all the wind had been stolen from their sails. 

Jun noticed the uncertain look the man was giving him but he was still doing his best to be charming and defuse the situation before anything got too out of hand. Thankfully, his attempts were successful, and his smiles were charming enough. The girls left the shrine, murmuring to each other, having never been charmed out of anger quite like that before. Or at least, Jun assumed that's what they were talking about. 

When he looked back, the priest was already walking away. 

"Hey, wait-" Jun hurried to catch up with him. "Ah…" What did the bracelet say again? "Sho-san?" 

That stopped him, and Sho spun around in surprise. For a brief moment, Jun was a little distracted by his surprised face before he remembered what he meant to say. 

"Ah… sorry, I thought that might be your name. It's on your bracelet-thing. You dropped it yesterday." Jun closed the distance between them, the beads held out like the peace offering they invariably were. 

"Sorry for running into you like that," he added for good measure. 

"No big deal," Sho shrugged off coolly, but he accepted the bracelet from Jun, so that was a start. "It falls off pretty often, actually." 

A moment of silence passed while Jun searched for something more to say, and Sho looked very much like he was ready to walk away again. 

"You should probably lay low, until someone figures out whose taking those girls," Jun offered, because he could tell now that Sho didn't really have anything to do with it, the same way he had known to go to the shrine that morning, and the same way he could tell that whatever was actually going on with the girls, it was likely Monster-related. He was following his instincts. 

"I'll try, but I still have things I need to do," Sho hedged. 

Jun understood, he had things to do too, like the arrangement of a ludicrously lavish party in about a week, but in comparison with the problem at hand, that seemed like a piece of cake. 

"Anyway," Sho said, looking remarkably awkward. "I should get back to... things... see you." 

Jun wondered if he meant that 'see you' literally, but before he could ask, Sho was already walking away again. He watched the guarded man retreat into the temple, not sure what to make of him, or his mood. 

\--- 

It was not long before Sho was back at the flames again. They crackled and sputtered before him, and Sho watched them dance. He saw the tall dark-haired man in the flames, and the shorter dark-haired man from yesterday beside him, and then the flames revealed more, and what Sho saw… was not good. 

He felt compelled to do something, to help, he just didn't know where to start, and the flames could not tell him that. 

\--- 

As he was making his way back through the park toward home, Jun's phone started to ring, briefly treating the trees to a sample of Nino's new single. 

It was Ohno, so Jun didn't hesitate to answer. 

"Jun-kun, this is going to sound weird, but I think… I mean, I could be really wrong, but I think I know the next girl that might disappear. I need you to meet me somewhere. It's...it's at a wedding." 

"A wedding?" Jun repeated, if only to make sure he'd heard Ohno right, because there was a lot of uncertainty in the older man's voice. 

But Jun had heard him right. Apparently, they were going to a wedding. 

\--- 

When Jun arrived at the address Ohno had provided, he discovered him after a moment, shifting worriedly from foot to foot just outside the entrance of a rather fancy hotel. 

"Ohno-kun," Jun greeted. He hadn't meant to startle him, but Ohno jumped, so Jun patted his shoulder in what he hoped was a reassuring way and tried not to laugh. "Sorry. What's going on?" 

Ohno nodded toward a pair of large and ornate glass doors, the main entrance of the hotel. 

A small cluster of shrine maidens wandered through the lobby. Jun knew what they were because of their traditional robes, flowy layers of red on the bottom and fluffy layers of white on top. Ohno pointed them out, though they were hard to miss. 

"Her, at the left," he murmured. 

Jun wanted to ask how Ohno could possibly know that, but before he could ask Ohno was already telling him. 

"I started to tell you the other night, I overheard some of the other teachers talking. They were talking about how all the other girls that went missing… those girls were all supposed to be shrine maidens in the festival this year." 

Jun was glad no one was around to hear the topic of their conversation, or notice them standing there, since he had a feeling they probably looked suspicious. Then again, they were somewhat blocked by a hedge, so that was helpful. 

"I looked it up. Seven girls were called," Ohno went on, and Jun fought off a chill. "But there is only one left now… it's her." 

It was impossible not to be concerned for the girl, and not just for her either, but for all the other girls that were already missing. Missing, not gone for good, Jun hoped. 

"She's part of the ceremony, I think we should probably look out for her, just in case," Ohno said. "I just have this feeling." 

Jun understood completely, and he found himself beaming at Ohno. He doubted he would have made the important connection to the shrine maidens without Ohno's help. "I am really impressed you figured all this out." 

Ohno shrugged, and Jun noticed he was a bit flushed. "It wasn't really me… the other teachers figured it out." 

"And if you hadn't known how important it was, we wouldn't be here to protect her, right?" He wasn't going to let Ohno deflect the compliment. 

Now they just had to find a way to sneak into the building without anyone realizing they weren't supposed to be there... They looked a bit out of place in casual clothes for a wedding at a hotel this fancy. 

It had been so long since Jun had heard SOUL say anything at all, that he was sincerely shocked when she came zooming out of his pocket all at once, flashing colors at them. 

Blue-Purple-Blue Yellow-Purple-Yellow Blue… Red? The red was new, but then Jun wasn't even entirely sure he saw it amidst the other flashes. He was also busy looking around wildly to be sure no one else was nearby who could spot her flying all over the place. 

"Matsumoto-san I sensed that you require my assistance. I am currently preoccupied with an unusual blockage in my code. How may I assist you at this time?" 

Well that explained why she had been so quiet all this time. Jun thought that code blockage sounded pretty serious, even if he had no idea at all what it meant. When they weren't in the middle of trying to save lives, maybe he'd remember to ask her. 

"We need…ah, wedding clothes." Jun wasn't sure if she could help with this, or if SOUL even really knew what a wedding was, but it appeared that she did. 

In a blinding flash of light, one they were both starting to get used to, their clothes became something else entirely. 

"Eh?" Ohno was squinting as his eyes readjusted to the light around him. "What did she do?" 

It took them both a moment to finally get a real look at themselves. Jun and Ohno wore matching black suits with white shirts and bow ties that matched the color of their microphones. Purple and blue, respectively. Jun didn't miss that little hint she left on them. It would make it difficult to pretend to be staff though, and he hoped no one would notice that they were not actually guests. 

They had one close call, when the bride swished past them down a cross hall and Ohno very nearly collided with her, if Jun hadn't caught him by his jacket and pulled him back. She only spared them the briefest glance, and Jun had to breathe a sigh of relief. If anyone could kick them out of this wedding, it was the bride, and thankfully she did not have the time to be bothered with them. 

However, once they were there at the wedding, there wasn't much to do beyond keep an eye on the shrine maiden and… 

Jun sighed. Ohno had found food. 

"You can't resist?" 

Ohno muffled something incomprehensible in response and Jun nodded, smirking, though he hadn't heard a single clear word. He waited for Ohno's mouth to be clear enough to speak, since it seemed like he wanted to say something. 

"So, what happened with that bracelet, and the shrine? Did you find the guy? Was he evil?" 

Jun realized in the commotion he hadn't had the chance to tell Ohno what happened, so he launched into the story with as much detail as he could manage in a crowded room. 

"I don't think there's a real curse, as you said," Jun concluded with his own opinion. "But it does seem like he's got… some kind of strange powers, if what the girl at the shrine said is true. He's super guarded too." 

Ohno was frowning but nodding around another mouthful of something. 

Jun rolled his eyes. "I know the food is good, but we can't-" 

_-let our guard down_ , Jun meant to say, but cut himself off when he recognized a familiar figure in Shinto robes cut across the room. 

He whacked Ohno on the shoulder a bit urgently. 

"What is it?" Ohno tried to follow Jun's gaze. 

"It's him, it's the not-cursed priest!" Jun whispered slightly. 

He seemed to be in a hurry to get somewhere. 

"Wonder what he's doing here…" Ohno mused. 

\--- 

They decided to follow him of course. They tried to keep far enough back that they wouldn't be noticed, but eventually Sho wandered off into a maze of hallways, and after a few turns Jun was starting to think they'd lost him, and were also lost themselves. He felt something was very wrong. Somehow, he had a feeling they would need to get back to the girl, sooner rather than later. His heart was pounding with a nervous energy Jun wished would calm down a bit. He was cursing himself that he hadn't left Ohno behind to watch her. 

Then they heard a girl scream. She sounded scared. Without pausing to think Jun exchanged a look with Ohno, and took off toward the sound at a run, knowing Ohno was right behind him. 

\--- 

Following the direction of the sound, Jun and Ohno soon found themselves in an empty garden. The silence there was eerie. 

"Do you see anything?" he asked Ohno, when they had both caught their breath a bit. 

"There." 

Ohno was pointing, and they both found themselves approaching a scene that caused Jun to briefly reconsider his certainty that Sho was not involved in the missing girls. The shrine maiden they had been trying to protect was on the ground. She was not moving, but she was thankfully still breathing. Sho was standing in the clearing with her, and Jun called out before he could think through the potential implications. 

"Sho-san?" 

As they approached, Jun realized Sho looked a bit terrified himself, and he did not take the time to explain. There was a small scroll in his hands, scrawled with kanji that Jun could not make out at this distance. _Ofuda_? 

Ohno and Jun did not see the growing swirl of angry leaves behind them, rising higher as the wind picked up more and more leaves, swirling faster. 

"You think he's a Monster?" Ohno murmured at his side, appearing as hesitant to make any sudden moves as Jun. 

Uncertain, Jun shook his head, not knowing if there was a Monster in Sho, or in the girl, or perhaps somewhere close by, but he knew that something felt very wrong. Before he could answer Ohno, Sho was flinging the scroll in their direction and yelling something about evil spirits. 

Not only was it a shock, but Jun had to duck as the scroll (which seemed to take on a life of its own) sailed over his head, and smacked right into a leaf tornado. 

How had they missed the leaf tornado? Seriously? 

Now his heart was pounding, and he tried to pull Ohno back, but when the scroll hit the leaves the wind dissipated almost instantly, and they all floated gently to the ground. 

Both Ohno and Jun were a bit speechless, but Sho rushed passed them, leaving the girl behind to instead examine the now motionless pile of leaves at their feet. 

"This is it," Sho was saying and he sounded almost elated, relieved. "This is what's taking the girls." 

Then it seemed to click into place for Jun why Sho was there at the wedding, and why he was following this mystery so closely. He had been trying to help, like them. 

"You're after it, the Monster-" Jun started, but then Ohno was yanking him backward quite suddenly. 

"Look out!" 

The leaves were picking up again with the wind. It seemed that whatever Sho's scroll had done, it hadn't fully exorcised the Monster. 

That was less than ideal. 

Sho was the only one who looked more determined than shocked when a ripple of furious energy opened up a dark rift in the air above their heads. 

The reaching metal arms that shot out of the rift grabbed Sho first. 

"Ah! Wait- !" Jun shouted somewhat nonsensically. 

But Sho couldn't wait, because he was being pulled into the roiling void whether he wanted to be or not. So, Jun did the only thing he _could_ do. He grabbed hold of Sho's legs, and held on tight when what felt like a near unstoppable force swept them both off the ground and into the abyss. 

\--- 

Ohno did not manage to grab either of them in time. He could only watch as Jun disappeared into a hole in the sky, along with Sho the priest guy. Ohno felt a knot of worry growing into a bloom of panic. 

"Jun-kun?" he called out, already fairly certain it was pointless. 

There was no reply of course, and Ohno did not know how to follow them. Instinct drove him to dive a hand into his pocket, searching for the familiar little ball. 

SOUL's light was faint, but it seemed to brighten a bit when Ohno called to her. 

"SOUL-chan! I need your help!" 

\--- 

_In a dark, murky dimension, on a dingy patch of grass, Sho and Jun landed rather hard._

_Jun didn't notice at the time, but he was preventing Sho from moving, since he was kind of laying across his legs at a strange angle. For a moment, neither one of them was sure how to move._

_They were quite close. Jun's mind informed him that this was no time for blushing._

_"Ouch..." Sho was protesting._

 _Jun agreed with a pained hiss of his own when he tried to move, because they had not had a soft landing._

_Whatever dragged them here, it let them go when they landed. The rift they fell through disappeared with a stretched-sounding_ pop _and a weird ripple of the air where it had been._

_Then Jun spotted the girls in their eerie circle on the ground, and Sho noticed the Monster._

_The Monster had cold metal arms that were too long for its body, and a head that was no head at all, with no face, only the disconcerting dome of a propeller pointed right at them. Two more smaller propellers spun threateningly at either side, like grotesque ears._

_What… the fuck?_

_All at once, Jun recalled his dream in a spark of fear and recollection. Apparently it hadn't been just a dream._

_Jun's body was moving ahead of his mind. His adrenaline kicked in, right alongside whatever the shock of glittering-fizzy energy was that shot through him when he scrambled to his feet, and retrieved his microphone from the inner pocket of his suit jacket._

_"You might want to stand back," he tried to warn Sho. He didn't want to kick the guy when the ribbons and the spinning started._

_And then they started._

_Jun found he was almost getting used to this, but… no it was still pretty seriously weird. The choker and the tiara and the boots and big ass bows. At least he knew what words were going to come out of his mouth by now, even if he did not yet understand their power._

_When it was over, Jun landed way steadier than he was actually feeling._

_"In the name of Arashi, I will punish you!"_

_Even if you're terrifying as hell, Jun added silently in his head. Seriously whose nightmare did this thing walk out of? Besides his own, of course._

\--- 

_Sho wasn't sure what he was seeing. And really, he was even a little miffed at being told to stand back by this guy, who did not seem to him all that terribly threatening or likely to be protecting anyone. Not based on how he had run off the other day at the shrine._

_Then Sho wasn't able to think, because it was really painfully bright all of a sudden where the other guy was just standing. ...floating? Spinning!?_

_"Agh!" Sho shielded his eyes, and missed most of the transformation, but there was no missing when the other man landed and he was wearing what he was wearing, and wielding a sparkling microphone in his hand._

_"...Um?" He didn't know how to deal with all of this._

_Before he could even think to ask though, he was watching as the man with the long dark pigtails and the purple skirt started flipping around the perimeter of the Monster, disorienting the hulking metal creature with a few well-place kicks._

_"Heh… he's super good at flips." Sho didn't even realize he said that aloud. It was just... pretty amazing to watch._

_He thought he should help, but he wasn't sure what to do, or if… the other guy even actually needed his help? He seemed pretty capable now._

_Sho watched as a few kicks missed their target, and then the propeller-head thing lashed back, but it missed as well. Sho thought if he were doing this he would have much better aim, but it was easy to say that from way over here._

_The girls were all laid out nearby, and Sho noticed (with serious relief) that they all appeared to still be breathing. Because he was looking away, Sho didn't see the vines until it was too late._

\--- 

_Jun was too busy fighting to notice the vines._

_Thick, mossy vines of dead leaves and dirt slithered across the ground at his feet. He nearly tripped over one before it flew at him, coiled itself around his middle, and slithered up... squeezing far too tight._

_He didn't mean to cry out but the painful contraction of the vine was a shock to his system. Then even more vines were wrapping around his wrists, and Jun felt himself being lifted high off the ground none too gently._

_It really hurt._

_Jun kicked out, but it was useless, because there was nothing nearby for him to find traction on. The vines were snaking down from high in the treetops, and there was no escape. He tried not to panic, but it wasn't going that well. More vines wrapped round his ankles, then pulled down tight, and he couldn't kick anymore. Now he couldn't move at all, painfully stretched in both directions._

_When he tried to move the vines swayed, but didn't give. All Jun could do was wiggle helplessly in the air._

_This was really bad._

_With Jun immobilized, the Monster turned on Sho, who had a look of pure terror about him when it began to stumble in his direction._

_Not as tough as he appears... The thought drifted briefly through Jun's mind, but it was followed shortly by true worry. There was nothing he could do. He couldn't move, and he couldn't help Sho. He could still talk though._

_"Sho-san! Run!" Jun shouted, just hoping that Sho would listen._

\--- 

_Sho did try to run, but…_

_He wasn't sure what was happening. His feet wouldn't move, and he felt a strange vibration against his wrist._

_THE VINES, his brain shouted at him, but when Sho lifted his wrist, it wasn't a vine, it was his bracelet. It was glowing, bright and red, light bursting out from somewhere inside the stone beads._

\--- 

Still stranded a world away, Ohno was at a loss. He'd forgotten all about the wedding at the hotel in whose garden he now stood. SOUL was cupped carefully in his hands, and Ohno was talking to her. 

He wasn't sure what he needed to do to save Jun, but he was going to figure it out. 

"Ohno-san," SOUL was chiming at him. "You must transform. I will instruct you to open a gateway into the dimension where Matsumoto-san is located. You must hurry." 

Ohno did not need to be told twice. 

"ARASHI POWER - FOR DREAM!" 

It was a relief to have a plan. Now he could fight, and he could help. Ohno let the transformation do what it would do. It was only his second time, but he did not find that it was uncomfortable. It was only faintly disorienting, up until the point when Ohno could feel the sparkles fading, and the splash of a water puddle at his feet. 

He wasn't entirely sure where the water came from. It was probably magic water. 

Ohno noticed he had skipped the bit about punishing someone. Then, there wasn't actually anyone there for him to punish right now. 

\--- 

_The brighter his bracelet shone, the more Sho could feel the vibrations shifting on his wrist. He didn't know what was happening, but it felt important, and strange. The glint and the shine also seemed somehow to be slowing down the propeller-head Monster, so Sho assumed it was a good thing._

_"What are you doing?" he asked the bracelet somewhat nonsensically._

_In response, there was an abrupt, much more brilliant burst of light, and when it faded Sho found that he was holding something._

_In his hand was a bright red microphone covered in darker red jewels, and seemingly dipped in glitter. It looked a lot like the one that the purple fighter guy was holding. Sho didn't know what to do with it… but then he didn't need to know, because he was just… doing it._

\--- 

_Jun watched it all happening from afar, because he was trapped, his arms slowly going numb above his head. He couldn't really do anything except watch as Sho's bracelet transformed itself into another magic microphone._

_…Of course. Jun all but knew it was coming, had felt the inevitability slowly growing with each crossing of their paths. Sho was a soldier. He was one of them._

_And... now he was transforming. Even as uncomfortable as Jun was in his current position, he found himself smirking a little bit. Maybe now he might actually get out of this situation alive._

_Hopefully._

_As Sho's transformation disoriented the Monster, Jun found that the vines at his wrists were loosening. Time to move. He yanked hard, with as much of his full weight as he could, and the vines at his wrists snapped. Then he was tumbling fast to the leafy ground._

_Kicking his legs to untangle them, Jun squirmed out of the heavy ropes of leaves still tangled around him as best he could, while the feeling slowly returned to his limbs._

\--- 

_Oh, what the hell._

_Sho was maybe freaking out a little. His mouth was saying things he wasn't telling it to say, his body was posing weird, and struggling against the whole thing seemed entirely futile. Then, maybe he didn't want it to stop, since it was holding up the Monster that had just been charging at him. Maybe this wasn't so bad? ...Except for the part where he could swear he was naked for a second. Seriously, what the hell was going on._

_His world was awash with sweeps of red, velvety rose petals, and an alarming amount of flames. A swirl of disembodied fire also danced around with the rest of the outlandish happenings currently surrounding him on all sides. Sho wondered how the rose petals weren't catching fire? Or his hair, for that matter, which felt way longer now, and was swirling all around him. Why wasn't his hair on fire?_

_Sho could feel the heat of the flames, but they didn't burn him. They seemed only to energize him._

_"In the name of Arashi, I will punish you!"_

_Sho thought those words had sounded quite cool coming from the man in purple, but he wasn't sure if his own announcement had the same impact._

_With any luck though, the Monster was quaking in his… propellers._

\--- 

_By the time he extracted himself from the vines, Sho's transformation was over, but Jun just caught the tail end of it, in all of its fiery glory._

_Warily, he circled the Monster, trying to figure out the best way to approach the situation._

_"That was super cool by the way!" Jun shouted a bit, hoping to pull the Monster's attention from its singular focus on Sho._

_Now what._

_The Monster swiped toward Jun, and he rolled out of the way on pure instinct. When he popped up, he was conveniently standing beside Sho._

_"Uh… thanks, I think," Sho said, somewhat awkwardly tugging at his skirt. "This is weird."_

_"You get used to it," Jun assured. Unfortunately further conversation was impeded as the Monster charged toward them at full speed._

_Jun dodged again. Sho sort of gracefully spun away in a move that Jun found pretty cool. Some of his uncertainty over trying to fight together began to ease as their battle continued. They seemed to find a pretty good rhythm actually, despite not knowing each other all that well._

_…did Jun hear music?_

\--- 

_"Do you hear music?" Sho asked almost at the exact same time that the thought struck Jun._

_"Right, the music, we might have to sing soon."_

_"Why would we be singing??" Sho sounded distressed, but then, he just did two backflips in a row. Sho did not know that he could do even a single backflip, let alone two, in red stiletto pumps. This was all very sudden._

_The Monster whirled on him. Sho felt a flutter of panic that seemed to spur his limbs into doing… whatever they were now doing, and it helped him dodge a heavy swing. Then, and Sho really wasn't sure how he triggered it, but all of a sudden flames were shooting out of his microphone._

_"AHHH!" He almost dropped it before Sho had the presence of mind to aim the microphone, and its accompanying torrent of flames, in the Monster's direction._

_He found his mark. The fire hit the Monster in a roaring ball of heat, and seemed to swallow it whole. The only thing left when the fire burned out was a rain of smoking ashes drifting slowly to the ground._

\--- 

_Jun was almost grateful that the Monster died before they had gotten to the part with the singing and dancing. He was pretty exhausted._

_It wouldn't have felt quite right without Ohno anyway._

\--- 

_Sho was also grateful that there hadn't been any singing. What was that even about?_

_"Good job, by the way," Jun complimented eventually from some distance away, shaking leaves out of his pigtails. He was grinning at Sho, who could only look dazedly back at him._

_On the ground nearby there was movement, and Sho almost thought it was another Monster, but it was only the missing girls. One at a time, they were beginning to wake from their sleep._

_Sho was just offering to help them stand when another tear in space opened above their heads. Immediately suspicious, he put himself between the still-waking girls and the portal._

_Seriously, could things not just slow down for two seconds?_

\--- 

"Jun-kun? You okay?" 

_Jun was kind of surprised when he looked up from checking on some of the girls to see Ohno's face floating above them, through a weirdly rippling portal surface._

_"Ohno-kun!" he said in surprise. "We're alright, I think… I think the Monster is dead? But we really need to get everyone out of here first."_

_Ohno was speaking to someone on the other side, and then the portal floated gently down closer to the ground on their end._

_Sho and Jun began helping the rest of the girls to stand. As a group, they made their way to the portal, where they helped to guide each girl through to Ohno, who was waiting in the garden on the other side._

_When all the girls were safely through, Jun didn't give Sho a chance to question him, just pushed the man ahead of him despite his complaints. He was ready to leap through himself, when something caught at his ankles, and yanked him hard enough that he went skidding across the grass, away from the portal._

_"Fuck, ow!" It was the damn vines again._

_Jun had hoped they died with the Monster, but apparently not. He could hear Ohno calling out to him, but Jun could do nothing but roll over and try to find some kind of purchase in the damp grass to stop from being dragged any further away._

_In the blink of an eye, he felt the vines at his ankles break free. Much to Jun's shock, Tuxedo Mao had come tumbling through the tunnel, cape fluttering behind her, and slammed down on the vine with the tip of a… cane?_

_He had never noticed the cane before. It was an interesting fashion choice. Jun had to remind himself that her cane was not the most important issue at the moment._

_"Tuxedo Mao, again?" he taunted her a bit. Now that the vines were not dragging him off to die, he felt a lot better about the whole situation._

_"Let's get out of here," was her answer, which Jun hardly disagreed with. She helped him to stand, and together the two of them staggered to the exit._

_As they rushed through it, the portal quickly sucked shut behind them._

\--- 

Once again, Jun hit the ground hard, and Tuxedo Mao fell immediately beside him. For a moment they both just lay there in the grass, and Jun breathed in the smell of normal air again. 

Something about that place had felt too dark, and too heavy. It was a relief to be back. 

"MatsuJun!" 

Ohno hadn't called him that in a really long time, not since they were kids. Jun was pleasantly surprised to hear it again. 

"Oh-chan?" he returned in kind, with a grin that Ohno easily matched. 

"I'm really glad you're back, you sure you're okay?" 

"I'm fine," Jun waved off, managing to climb to his feet on his own this time. And surprisingly he was okay, and despite everything he had been through, only a little sore. 

When Jun looked back, Tuxedo Mao was gone. But then Jun caught sight of her cape, disappearing away into the garden. Why was she always in such a hurry to leave? 

"Do you think she's a soldier?" Ohno questioned beside him. 

Jun considered the thought a moment before shrugging. "I have no idea. This is like the second time she's saved my ass though." 

Ohno hummed sort of noncommittally. 

"Sakurai-san?" 

It was SOUL speaking. When Jun turned at the sound of her voice, there were three of her now, bobbing out of time in a row, flashing colors in the dim twilight. There was definitely red in there now. 

It took Jun a moment to figure out who she was talking to, since he'd never heard Sho's family name before. Sho was just standing there, watching the floating balls. Jun bit back a laugh and nudged Ohno on the off chance he was missing this. 

They had a new soldier. 

Which is what SOUL was saying now. 

"Sakurai-san, you are our third soldier." 

There was quite a long pause while Sho seemed to absorb this information, and surprised Jun when he eventually responded with an uncertain laugh and a helpless shrug. 

"I always thought there was something a little weird about me." 

Jun remembered the angry mob of girls, and Sho's guarded face, and felt a sort of gratefulness at just seeing the guy actually smile, and even laugh. He finally let himself laugh, when he heard Ohno snickering beside him. 

"Welcome to the club, I guess," Jun greeted him a bit playfully, though he meant it. 

It looked as though Sho was trying to school his face into not a smile as the three of them began to make their way out of the garden, their heels only a little unsteady on the grass. Three little orbs hovered conspicuously behind them. 

Jun couldn't help thinking things were starting to get interesting. 

\--- 

_Interlude Part III_

_The crystal castle loomed again on the horizon of another world._

_Inside the castle, Usagi was pissed._

_"Ami!? How could this happen!?"_

_"My most sincere apologies, Your Majesty." Ami perhaps should have sounded more afraid, sorrier, but Usagi was kind of always like this so, she'd gotten used to it._

_"The Arashi soldiers will **pay** for this!"_

\--- 

_Epilogue_

Before they left the hotel, Jun, Ohno, and Sho requested the aid of SOUL and were returned to their normal clothes. Ohno and Jun had lost the fancy wedding suits from earlier, and were in their standard attire, and Sho of course was back to his Shinto robes. 

What surprised Jun was when Sho's microphone morphed back into his old bracelet, and Ohno's morphed itself into another bracelet, with blue stone beads. 

Jun was expecting a bracelet too, but he got a necklace instead, a silver chain hung with a purple stone pendant. He didn't think the necklace was quite as cool but he put it on with a sigh. At least the jewelry was easier to get around with, the microphones were kind of hard to explain away on their own. 

After a brief explanation, Sho agreed to accept one of the SOUL orbs. Ohno's and Jun's were returned safely to their pockets, and they all began to make their way back through the city. 

"Do you guys feel like getting a drink or something?" Jun asked after they had been walking for a few minutes in companionable silence. Sho had gotten a little ahead of them, and Jun hurried to catch up while Ohno trailed behind. 

Sho gave him a very uncertain look. Jun tried to smile reassuringly. 

"You're not just gonna go home now, are you? You should really come check out the headquarters." 

"Headquarters?" Sho repeated skeptically. 

Jun knew it was kind of a lot to take in all at once. He and Ohno had both been through it, but Jun thought it might be good to get everything out in the open now. "It's basically magic, I guess? It's hidden in this karaoke bar-" 

He was ready to go on describing, but Sho stopped dead, and gave him a _look_. Jun really didn't know what that look meant, but it seemed serious, so he stopped too. 

"I _really_ hate karaoke." 

O…kay. Jun wondered immediately if Sho had experienced some traumatizing childhood ordeal that involved karaoke, but he didn't ask. Jun was ready to point out that Sho didn't have to sing if he didn't want to, but then- 

"And I don't really think it's a good idea for us to become like… friends," Sho said slowly. 

Jun blinked. Well this was awkward. "Ah…" he scrambled for something, anything, to say but nothing came to him. Were he and Ohno that annoying? 

"I'm going home," Sho finally said with a sigh, and left Jun standing there, a little speechless. 

Maybe, Sho was just overwhelmed. He just needed time to adjust to… everything. Jun remembered what it was like. 

_He still might not want to be your friend though, even after he adjusts._

Jun sighed, and then jumped when Ohno patted his back comfortingly. He'd been so lost in his thoughts he'd almost forgotten Ohno was still there. "Sorry," he apologized. 

"It's okay. He'll come around." 

Jun hoped that he did, though he did not have Ohno's faith. It would definitely suck if one of the other soldiers didn't want to be their friend. 

Pushing it from his mind for now, Jun draped an arm over Ohno's shoulders, and started them in the direction of the karaoke place. 

"Let's go have a drink." Now he felt like he needed it. 


	4. Act Four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The tale of the Epic Costume Party. Also flirting happens all over the place, and Sho finally gets to rap. There's a lot more stuff that happens but you'll just have to read.

Act Four

" _Ahh_ … that's seriously disappointing," Jun said for what Ohno thought must have been the eighth time. In all fairness, Jun was also on his fifth drink so Ohno supposed it wasn't all that shocking his friend was being a little repetitive. 

Not that Ohno wasn't keeping up with Jun in the drinking department, but Jun seemed a lot more toasted than Ohno currently. Then again, Ohno recalled Jun had always been quick to intoxication when they were teenagers. He still found that particular trait of Jun's a little charming. 

Jun seemed particularly troubled at the moment by the newest soldier's rejection of their friendship. He was currently sitting at the bar, face-planted into his own forearm, a half-finished glass of wine tipped somewhat precariously in one hand. Ohno reached out to tip the glass straight, before the wine could spill, though Jun didn't seem to notice. 

Honestly, the situation worried Ohno a bit too. If they were going to be working with this person, and fighting and risking their lives together, Ohno hoped there wouldn't be any tension. _Sakurai_ , SOUL called him. 

"How does someone just hate karaoke like that?" Jun continued his rant from moments before. 

"Maybe he's just super bad at singing," Ohno proposed, sipping at his strange cerulean cocktail. 

Jun refused any of Ohno's concoctions in favor of wine, which in retrospect Ohno believed was probably a smart move. Whatever this blue stuff was he made for himself, it was starting to get a little too sweet… but he didn't plan to waste it either, and it did pack a punch. 

Ohno was drawn out of pondering his drink when SOUL spoke, hovering above the bar, seemingly unperturbed by the current state of the two of them. 

"We must try to change his mind." she said dispassionately. "The soldiers must be united in spirit. Your destiny demands it. You can only succeed together." 

Ohno was a bit surprised she said 'we', because he got the sense that it would probably end up being him and Jun who did most of the convincing. 

At least Sho agreed to take an orb, so for the time being he wasn't completely out of the loop. If something bad went down, he had the beaded bracelet, he could at least defend himself. It made Ohno feel a bit better, unthinkingly fiddling with the blueish beads of the bracelet on his own wrist. 

"We can't really force him to be friendly though," Ohno reasoned, after absorbing SOUL's proclamations. Sometimes, forcing it just made things worse. 

Jun made a vague sort of noise into his wine glass which Ohno at first took to mean that he agreed. 

When Jun finally looked at Ohno though, the younger man had a stubborn set to his expression that Ohno found a touch concerning. "Maybe we'll be his friend, whether he likes it or not." 

Ohno wasn't sure that was the best plan, but he humored Jun with a smile anyway. "Maybe?" 

"Do you believe Sakurai-san will be a good addition to your team?" SOUL asked after a moment. 

"I'll let you know, when he agrees to talk to me," Jun snarked back at her. SOUL only glowed serenely at him in response. She did not appreciate his wit. 

Ohno appreciated it though, he always enjoyed when Jun got sassy. 

"I have been scanning local news sources." Instead of acknowledging Jun, SOUL apparently decided to change the subject entirely. Ohno laughed at the look of protest on Jun's face, though she ignored him too. "If these sources are accurate, there is a probability that we may be able to obtain the Rainbow Crystal." 

"Eh?" Ohno chimed. It was surprising since he'd thought that in order to find the crystal they would first have to find all of the soldiers, but apparently not. 

Jun tilted his face up to look at SOUL. Ohno kindly didn't comment on how it seemed to take him a moment to actually focus on the floating orb in the air. Then Jun was pointing. Helpfully, Ohno took his wine glass to make that easier for him. 

"This sounds really important... tell us about it tomorrow." Jun was at least aware enough to know he was in no condition to be planning anything tonight. 

Ohno supposed they really needed a night to relax anyway, if only to celebrate the fact that they had once again made it through all of the things that happened to them that day, without dying. 

\--- 

_Interlude_

_The crystal castle gleamed with a magenta light. It seemed to glow from every fissure and crack in its embankments up to its highest tower._

_"Three soldiers now!?"_

_Usagi was deeply disappointed in Ami's results. It seemed every time she returned with news, the situation had only deteriorated further._

_"We absolutely cannot allow them to continue to awaken. **HOWEVER** -"_

_Ami winced at the volume level, but Usagi did not notice._

_"-we must watch them closely. If they are crawling about… they may yet lead us to the Rainbow Crystal."_

_"Actually, Your Majesty, I think I may have discovered a potential-"_

_"SILENCE!"_

_Ami stopped talking, and tried not to offend her queen._

_"You have failed me too many times, Ami! I cannot entrust you with something **this** important. You have not yet restored my trust in you. Perhaps, if you make yourself more useful, I will... consider forgiving you." _

_No one could say Ami hadn't made a valiant effort to fulfill her mission. She was also relieved that, for the moment, she would not to be the one tasked with doing Usagi's bidding._

_"REI!" the queen was shouting. "I need you!"_

_"Yes, Your Majesty."_

_Ami wondered if Rei had just been standing out in the hallway eavesdropping, since within seconds she had swept across the hall to stand at Ami's side. But none of it was her problem anymore, for now, it would be Rei's._

\--- 

At the shrine near the park, alone in a quiet room, Sho sat considering his thoughts as the fire wavered before him. As the embers and sparks reflected in Sho's dark eyes, he was searching, as he always did, for another vision to give him guidance . 

What he gleaned from the flames however, was not guidance, it was a warning. 

Darkness was approaching, though Sho could not have been any more specific than that. Something terrible was on the horizon, again. 

\--- 

The following day, once Jun and Ohno had both finished with work for the day, the two of them agreed to meet at headquarters to discuss SOUL's latest lead together. 

The AI showed them a VTR of a local news segment about the newest arrival to the city's science museum. Something that was apparently called the 'Mystical Sapphire Crystal', an exquisitely beautiful crystal with a mysterious history. It appeared that the owner of the crystal was a very rich man, and that he intended to display the jewel for a one-night only event, at a party at the museum to celebrate his daughter's birthday. 

The crystal was rumored to be heavily guarded. For some reason, Jun had a feeling they would be going to this party. 

"It's called the Sapphire Crystal though, right? Not the Rainbow Crystal?" Ohno asked perplexedly. He and Jun had been up quite late the night before, doing their own celebrating, and Jun knew it had been a long day for him. Ohno was probably wistfully wishing for his bed at this point. 

SOUL did not seem annoyed by Ohno's questions, but she never really did, and they asked a lot of questions. 

"It is possible that over time the name of the Rainbow Crystal has been lost. Current status of the Rainbow Crystal: unknown. Current available history of the Sapphire Crystal: unknown. More information is required." 

"...I guess we're going to a party." Jun supposed he and Ohno would be doing the majority of the investigating, but he wondered if they could convince Sho to help. He wondered if they should even try. It might be a good idea to give the man a few days to acclimate. Besides, they were only gathering evidence at the moment. How much trouble could they really get into? 

\--- 

At a small café in the heart of the city, Inoue Mao watched a tv across the room, running the very same footage Jun and Ohno had just seen, rehashed on the local news. 

_Mystical Sapphire Crystal... hmm?_

She hadn't had much luck lately in her search, and this seemed as likely a clue as any. Could it be… the Rainbow Crystal? 

\--- 

The following afternoon, Rei saw the coverage as well, plastered across a newspaper at a stand near the park. The woman in crimson stopped short to read the headline, her mind already turning over the implications. 

If this was the Rainbow Crystal, her queen would be pleased. 

She did not notice or see Sakurai Sho wandering up the path behind her, cutting through the park on his way home. 

\--- 

Sho, however, noticed Rei. 

As the woman strode out of the park, a newspaper clutched tightly in her hands, Sho halted his own progress, staring after her retreating back. It was the feeling Sho got when he crossed her path that gave him pause. 

_Who was that? What the hell is with that aura?_

Something was amiss about her, something ominous. It tripped every red flag of Sho's intuition. Even when he could no longer see her, he could still feel her aura slowly disappearing into the city. He almost wanted to follow her. 

Sho wondered if he should try to talk to that orb thing about her, or perhaps just go home, and see if he could find anything about the woman in his flames. His thoughts were interrupted before he could decide. 

"Sakurai-kun?" 

When Sho turned to look he saw Ohno (the blue-skirted guy from the other day) and then noticed Jun (the purple-skirted guy from the other day) was behind him, and they were both headed in his direction. 

_Are they just together all the time?_

He wondered at the chances of running into them here. It was a popular park in a convenient location which just happened to be right by Sho's home... but still it felt more than a coincidence. 

Sho didn't really believe in coincidence anyway. Which didn't particularly make him any more excited to see the two men headed his way. 

\--- 

They were headed toward the park when Ohno stopped a bit short. Jun followed his gaze, and spotted Sho standing by a newsstand just at the park's edge, looking slightly pained. 

"Hey," Jun greeted. "This is unexpected..." Jun hoped his voice didn't register the nervous energy he felt, but he couldn't help worrying that this might end as poorly as the last time they tried to talk to Sho. 

He and Ohno were on their way back from lunch. Though, more accurately, Ohno was on his way back from lunch, and Jun was walking him back to the school. They'd been meeting for lunches almost daily now, if only to check in and compare notes with SOUL. They were trying to stay apprised of any unusual or Monster-related goings-on in the city. 

Since they'd run into Sho, Jun thought he might as well mention it, while he had the chance. 

"Have you heard anything about the big party?" Jun nodded toward the newspaper headlines, and Sho glanced that way before shaking his head slowly. 

"Nothing relevant." Sho looked for a moment like he was not sure he should go on. "But…" 

Jun and Ohno exchanged a look as they waited for him to go on. 

There was no one nearby, but Sho lowered his voice anyway, as though afraid they may be overheard. "I had a strange feeling the other night that something dark was coming, and I had the same feeling again when I heard about this...event." 

Jun noted, somewhat absently, that when Sho lowered his voice like that it was pleasantly melodic. 

_Focus_... 

"Whatever is coming, the darkness, it feels very similar to the last … Monster." Sho sounded like he was still trying to get used to saying that word on a regular basis. 

"If there are Monsters coming for the Sapphire Crystal… or the Rainbow Crystal…" Ohno tried to voice his thoughts, but seemed to get stuck trying to figure out which crystal they were talking about. Eventually, he seemed to sort out what he was trying to say. "If Monsters are going to be at the party, we should definitely go to protect people, right?" 

Jun realized this might be his only chance to ask. "If we're all going to investigate anyway… we could all go together?" 

Sho responded with a slightly anxious head-tilt, fidgeting uncertainly for a moment in a way that made him look much younger. "Honestly... I would rather go alone, I work much better alone." 

Jun had hoped they were making progress, but Sho was apparently extraordinarily stubborn. He knew he shouldn't push, Ohno had told him as much, but ultimately he couldn't bite his tongue. 

"Don't you think we should get to know each other? If we're going to be fighting together?" Jun was only mildly successful at reigning in his exasperation. 

Sho seemed to consider Jun's impassioned questions for several agonizing beats. "I think there is a difference between friends and co-workers," he eventually said. "I feel like... this is more the second thing. I don't really understand why we need to be friends." 

_Does he just not like us?_ Jun didn't know what else to say. SOUL seemed convinced that they didn't have a choice, but Jun didn't see her out here telling Sho that now. Why did they have to do all the convincing? He was grateful for Ohno when the older man interjected before Jun could start shouting on the street corner. 

"You _really_ don't want to be friends?" Ohno checked, sounding genuinely curious, and decidedly less annoyed than Jun. 

"It's not a good idea," was all Sho said, and from his tone, there was no arguing with him. "I'm usually alone…it just works for me. It's easier this way. I think we should stay out of each other's way, okay?" 

Now Sho was frowning, and Jun felt bad for pushing the issue, even if he thought Sho was being unnecessarily obstinate. The thought crossed his mind that maybe someone had really hurt Sho, but he tried to dismiss it. What was the point of speculating if the guy wasn't going to talk to him anyway? 

"I've got to go. Later." And Sho was leaving again, striding determinedly away, and not waiting for an answer from either of them. 

Jun only just barely managed not to roll his eyes. 

"He's weird, huh?" Ohno said quietly at his shoulder. It might have sounded rude, but Jun understood what he meant. Sho was complicated. 

Jun shook his head at the older man with a faint smile that didn't quite meet his eyes. "We're all weird." He prodded at the small of Ohno's back to get him moving. "Come on, you're going to be late." 

They walked in silence for a bit before Ohno spoke up again. "Try not to worry about it too much. We'll probably see him at the party anyway." 

He was right, of course. The fact remained they would all inevitably end up at the same place. Jun also realized after a moment that Ohno was trying to make him feel better. 

"I'm fine," he assured, perhaps trying to dismiss his own feelings. "If he wants to be grumpy, let him be grumpy. We have to figure out what we're wearing to this party..." 

\--- 

In keeping up with the local buzz surrounding the party, they soon discovered that it would, in fact, be a costume party. Costumes actually worked in their favor, as it would make it easier to blend in with the crowd, plus there was the added fun factor. 

When they arrived, the party was already well underway as the crowd outside slowly filtered in through the museum's great front doors. Jun's first thought, as he took in the full scale of the party, was to give credit to whoever was responsible for coordinating such a massive undertaking. The final result... was undeniably breathtaking, from the lighting to the layout, and Jun had only seen the first few rooms. 

He may have taken the costume thing a bit too far, not to mention impractical. Ohno had taken things to a bit of an extreme as well, though in another direction entirely. Together they made an interesting pair, the mascot-sized teddy bear, and the French maid in cat ears with a fluffy white tail. 

Ohno also had on a long wig, and glasses, and initially Jun didn't even recognize him. Ohno hadn't recognized Jun either, but that was because he was wearing a ridiculously round teddy bear's head, to match his perfectly adorable teddy bear costume. Jun found that in order to move about, he had to duck through doorways, and keep a tight hold on the top of his costume, or he risked losing his balance (and the bear head) completely. It was also particularly hard to see out of the bear's eyes, especially in ambient party lighting. Now that he had a closer look at Ohno's costume though… 

"What are you supposed to be exactly… a maid cat? Cat maid?" Jun sounded skeptical. 

\--- 

Ohno didn't really have a good explanation for his costume, so he shrugged. "I thought it looked cute." 

Whether or not Jun agreed was difficult to discern through his body language alone, and the bear's blank stare was not very helpful. All Ohno got from Jun was an amused-sounding cough. 

As they explored the museum, they wandered hallways that opened into various rooms, some with music, some without, some with food and drinks, and some where that sort of thing was not allowed. They still hadn't seen any sign of the crystal, but it was early in the evening, and Ohno thought he heard someone say they were planning a big reveal. 

In the front pocket of his apron, beside his feather duster, SOUL was hidden away, in case they were suddenly in need of her advice. So far though, all had been quiet, or as quiet as a party could be. 

"Should we explore more?" he asked Jun-bear after they'd been observing the party for some time. 

"I guess…" Jun trailed off, peering down a larger hallway, toward the end of which was a room that sounded quite rowdy indeed. Various colored lights danced out of the doorway, painting patterns onto the marbled floor and walls, and the rumbling bass from the room's music echoed down to them from quite a distance. 

"Dancing?" Ohno questioned, pointing in that direction. While he waited for Jun to answer, he studied the adorable teddy bear face and wondered how well Jun could actually see through it. 

When he did answer, Jun sounded affectionately exasperated. "We're supposed to be looking for the crystal, and I can't really dance in this costume." 

"Maybe the crystal is down that way," Ohno reasoned, somewhat unreasonably. He was already nudging Jun down toward the dance room. "What can it hurt to look...?" 

Jun sighed, but he let Ohno lead the way, and Ohno helped him pass through the doorway when his head nearly got stuck. 

They made a pretty good team. 

\--- 

Shortly after Ohno and Jun arrived, Sho entered through the large front doors. 

Admittedly he hadn't been the most creative with his costume, but it was practical. He was wearing his normal robes from the temple, largely because they were just so comfortable, and he did at least think to add a mask, which obscured his eyes, but didn't really impede his ability to see or speak. 

When he spotted a nearby table of snacks, Sho looked around carefully, saw no one and nothing noteworthy, and decided it would be a good idea to investigate it for a few minutes. He assured himself it was only to eavesdrop on nearby conversations, and had nothing to do with the fact that Sho skipped dinner to get to the party on time. 

He did not hear any relevant information, but he did fill a small plate with a variety of cheeses. 

\--- 

The first thing Jun noticed (though it was hard to notice much in a densely packed crowd of dancing people in costumes) was that there was a DJ, and that he was taking requests. Now that they were in the room the bass was loud and intense. Jun could only hear the DJ because of the speakers broadcasting his voice to the writhing throng of people. 

The second thing he noticed was that Ohno was dancing. 

That was a little distracting. 

"Oi… we have priorities, you know!" he had to shout for Ohno to hear him, even though he was gyrating only a few steps away. 

"I'm blending in!" Ohno replied. 

Jun thought that Ohno actually really stood out, dancing the way he was in that dress, but he didn't say so. He wondered if he should even attempt to dance with his cumbersome costume, but as he pondered... Jun found himself swept up into the pressing and shifting of the crowd. 

He didn't notice when it happened, but at some point, he lost Ohno. 

"Jeeze, that guy… I'm never going to find him now." 

\--- 

Ohno had also gotten somewhat swept up by the crowd. He found himself being pushed toward the doors at the far side of the room. He couldn't see Jun anymore, which was surprising considering the man's costume was so distinctive, but there were _so many_ people. 

Hopefully he could find Jun before too long. Pressed to the edge of the dancing hoard, Ohno was just debating if he should try to push back in, when he felt a movement in his apron pocket, the loss of a familiar weight, and suddenly SOUL was hovering before his eyes. 

Trying not to panic, Ohno grabbed her quickly, though it appeared in all the pandemonium that no one had noticed the flying orb. That was lucky. 

"What's wrong?" he asked, holding her up to his ear so he could at least attempt to hear her response. 

"We must investigate." 

Ohno supposed she had a point, considering that was why they were at the party in the first place. 

"I lost Jun," he admitted after a moment, on the off chance she couldn't tell with all these people around. 

"There is not time to locate him. We must spread out separately and search for the crystal." 

Ohno felt pretty bad about just abandoning Jun in the dance room, when it had been his idea to check it out in the first place, but SOUL was insisting. 

He slipped out of the doorway closest to him, though it was not the way they had come in, and Ohno found himself in another long, wide hallway. The corridor was filled with a few small clusters of people, likely momentarily escaping the chaos of the dance room, but otherwise the coast was clear. 

"Okay… where to?" he asked the orb, trying to be subtle about it, though no one was really paying them any attention. The music from the dance room echoed out into the cavernous corridor, and Ohno's ears still hadn't fully adjusted to the change in volume. 

SOUL directed him down the hall and to the right. When they reached an intersection, she insisted that they split up, and each explore a different hallway. 

Ohno had some concerns about leaving SOUL on her own, but he was fairly certain she had ways of taking care of herself. He placed her gently on the floor and watched her roll safely down the side of one hallway before he began to explore his own. 

\--- 

Her birthday party was really going splendidly so far... 

The birthday girl herself was traversing a dark and unoccupied hallway, on her way to oversee events in yet another of the museum's many rooms. The train of her bubblegum pink gown trailed across the marble in her wake. 

One of her father's people also trailed behind her, giving her an update on the party's current status. "We will be prepared to begin the showing of the Mystical Sapphire Crystal in one hour, ma'am." 

"Mm, have someone come find me when the time comes," she said absently. 

The assistant saluted her. "Understood, ma'am!" 

Everything was going quite splendidly indeed... She didn't notice as they passed an unlit room that someone inside of it was watching her pass. She didn't notice Rei, even when Rei stepped out into the hallway behind them, watching the pair still as they turned off down another corridor. 

Rei had plans of her own. She eyed the large potted plant across the hall from her speculatively before making her decision. 

Yes, this would be an adequate choice, a suitable distraction to keep those foolish Arashi soldiers occupied while she searched for the crystal. 

When Rei pressed a gem into the soil, it glowed a sickly green color from beneath. It took only a split-second for the Monster (for that was what Rei had created) to take form. It revealed itself to be a bizarre cactus-man, wearing a doublet, with no discernible eyes, nose, or mouth, and a unsettlingly long head covered in sharp cactus spines. 

Rei smirked at it coolly. "Go, follow the girl. Find the soldiers." 

The cactus Monster did not hesitate to obey its orders. Rei watched it march off in the direction the birthday girl had gone. 

Now, she needed to find the crystal. 

\--- 

The whole situation was getting a little ridiculous. Jun could barely move. His costume was not helping in the slightest, and he was struggling to figure out in what direction he should even begin to move if he wished to get out of the dancing hoard. 

"Ohno-kun?" he tried as loudly as he could. His shout was lost to the buzz of the bass, and the blast of the melody. No luck. 

Jun was not looking down (because he really couldn't ), and didn't see that he was about to trip over an abandoned plastic cup until it was too late, and he did. 

His bear head was too heavy, and there was nothing to stop his forward momentum... until he ran into something that halted his progress to the floor, which turned out to be a person. 

Luckily they were there, since Jun was not at all certain he could have gotten back up in the crowded chaos. The lights strobed and swirled around them, and he squinted through the dark mesh that covered his bear eyes, trying to make out who had saved him from falling. 

_Oh, of course it is._ When he tried to let go of Tuxedo Mao, the crowd began pressing in, and for a moment it was all Jun could do to hold on and not fall again, or worse yet take her down too. The dancing mob didn't let up, either. This close it was also impossible to miss that Tuxedo Mao… smelled really nice. _Focus. That's weird. Don't be weird._

"Ah… sorry about this," he tried to shout loudly enough. 

He caught just the very briefest glimpse of her staring at him in surprise and confusion. _Of course she doesn't recognize me._ It was not everyday you caught a giant teddy bear falling in the middle of a dance party. Jun wasn't sure, but he thought he heard a faint "What the hell," coming from the masked stranger. 

He couldn't help but agree. 

\--- 

Ohno felt like he had been wandering for a long time, but he hadn't found anything unusual. 

Until he did. 

Or rather, someone found him. He was just peering around a corner when he felt a hand grasping his shoulder. He jumped rather high, his heart pounding, before he caught sight of who was behind him. 

_It's Sakurai._

He willed his heart to calm down. No reason to panic. At least it was a familiar face. 

Sho had removed his mask as he explored deeper within the museum, following his Monster sense. He had pushed it up to rest on his brow, disheveling some of his hair in the process. Ohno likely would have been able to pick him out even with the mask on. The Shinto robes were pretty distinctive for one thing, and something about the guy's shoulders was pretty distinctive too. 

"I can sense a Monster," Sho was murmuring at him, his eyes intensely focused, which Ohno found a little distracting and a lot disquieting. 

Ohno had been feeling like _something_ was off, but he couldn't tell what, and there was so much going on in the building he wasn't entirely sure what he was feeling. He was anxious about finding Jun, and the crystal, and about where SOUL had gone. He hadn't noticed the uncomfortable energy until Sho said it aloud, and then he did. 

Faint, but there. For the time being Ohno pulled the cat-eared headband from his head, removed his glasses, and tucked both carefully into his apron pocket. It was time to get serious. 

"You should watch your back," Sho was saying. Ohno was only slightly surprised when he turned and began to walk off, back the way he had come. 

"Uh… wait," Ohno tried, rather unthinkingly reaching for Sho's elbow to stop him. 

Sho's distracted gaze flickered from Ohno to his hand and back again, waiting for him to continue. 

"It's just… well we have to fight the Monster probably, right, and it would probably be easier for two of us to kill it quickly... and we want to kill it quickly, because there's so many people here... Maybe we should work together?" Ohno hesitated to go on, checking Sho's expression, but it appeared that he was still listening. "Not as friends," he hurried to add. "As you know… soldiers." 

It seemed that Sho was considering his words for quite a long time while they stood in the empty corridor. 

"Yeah, okay," Sho said eventually. 

\--- 

Sho and Ohno wandered through empty corridors of the museum in silence for a while. They encountered a few blockades as they went, but no one was around to stop them from passing right through the roped-off areas. Sho was still trying to follow his sense of where the Monster was located in the huge building. It felt very like a maze, and Sho felt like the mouse, trying to follow the scent of cheese by means of paths he had never been down before. 

The Monster didn't smell like cheese of course, Sho pondered to himself. It was only an analogy. 

He was hoping if he didn't say anything that the man in the maid dress (yes, he _did_ notice that, it was actually really difficult to miss) wouldn't start talking to him, but that didn't end up working at all. 

"Sorry for asking," Ohno started, as if he knew Sho was already on the defensive (which he was). "But are you sort of… afraid to make friends, or something?" 

The question surprised him, and Sho was fairly sure it showed on his face, because he didn't know how to respond to it. _Was_ he afraid of making friends? 

That was a whole box of feelings that Sho did not particularly wish to unpack right at that moment, not when he may have to fight a Monster at any given turn but…Ohno continued. 

"I guess I just wanted to say, I totally understand." 

_Huh,_ Sho thought. He wanted to protest, because Ohno had said they were just going to work together as soldiers, and here he was getting all… friendly-like. Sho really didn't know what to say. He also found that he actually felt sort of bad just leaving Ohno hanging though, waiting for him to answer. 

"Maybe that's part of it," he answered eventually, trying not to sound as guarded as he currently felt. He really didn't mean to continue, and rather surprised himself when he found that he wanted to explain. "I guess I've just… lost a lot of people. Eventually you start to realize that everyone leaves. I don't know if I really see the point in bothering with friends, if everyone is just going to go away in the end. We all end up alone anyway." 

Sho shrugged, then let out a frustrated sigh when he noticed his cheeks felt kind of hot, and he had just been rambling on to this guy he barely knew… this was exactly the sort of thing that Sho tried to avoid most of the time. 

When he chanced a look to Ohno, Sho immediately felt pretty bad. Ohno looked a bit like he wanted to cry. 

"Sorry," Sho added, and found that he actually was sorry if he upset the guy. "It's just how I feel, you know." 

\--- 

Jun was _still_ stuck in the dance room. He was still trapped in the middle of the crowd with the woman in the tuxedo, hat, and cape. Neither one of them had been able to move very far. A couple of times, because there was really nothing else to do, they had actually tried to dance. But dancing in this crowd of hooting drunk people was really more just hopping in place, and that was a little hard for Jun to do with his big heavy bear head. 

Mostly, he just tried to work toward what he hoped might be the edge of the room. It was a surprisingly big room, for as packed with people as it currently was. Eventually it seemed there was a bit of a break in pressure, and the crowd parted enough for them to stumble out toward the edge of the room, where the door was located. 

Tuxedo Mao gave an awkward sort of cough. 

"Uh… sorry about that," Jun apologized, feeling pretty uneasy. Something at the corners of his perception seemed to indicate that something may be wrong… somewhere. 

It wasn't a particularly helpful feeling just then. 

"No big deal," she seemed to force out, and strode off, cape fluttering in her wake. 

Jun shook his head watching her disappear into the rowdy crowd once more. Where was she going? What a strange individual. Jun found himself more and more pondering what on earth her deal was. 

But obviously, there were more pressing matters. Since he was somewhat free, he should probably try to find Ohno. Then… Ohno probably wouldn't have gone too far, right? He would probably stick close by, if he was still trying to find Jun... 

An idea struck him all at once. If Ohno was also somewhere in this mass of people trying to find him, there was a good way to get his attention. Taking a deep breath, Jun steeled himself, before he charged back into the mass of dancing. 

He just had to make it to the DJ booth. 

\--- 

Ohno and Sho were still exploring, though they had fallen into a mostly comfortable silence again. 

Sho was walking just ahead of him, and Ohno noted the look of intense concentration that he seemed to take on whenever they reached an intersection or a room. He supposed Sho was trying to _feel_ where the Monster was, and found himself slightly admiring the man's abilities. 

Ohno's own intuition was not nearly this useful. At the moment, he was extremely grateful that Sho was around to help. 

He wasn't really aware that he was smiling, but Ohno's smile quickly faded when a high-pitched scream echoed at them down a dark corridor. 

They exchanged an urgent look, and then Ohno and Sho were both running. 

When they slid through the door into a brightly lit room that a second scream had echoed from, the scene before them was fairly alarming. 

A man in a suit lay unconscious on the ground. A woman Ohno recognized as the woman whose birthday party they were currently attending stood at the center of the room, fiddling with the dial on a small safe. He wasn't entirely sure what they had just walked in on, but as he watched, the woman had the safe open, and was pulling out a small velvet box. The realization hit Ohno like a bolt of lightning. 

" _The crystal_ ," he whispered to Sho sharply. 

An eerie green light seemed to be pouring from the girl. 

"She's the Monster," Sho said immediately, sounding grave. "It's in her." 

Ohno wasn't sure what to do, and the woman rounded on them at Sho's words. Then she was coming at them, far too quickly. Panicking Ohno threw his hands out to stop her, and they found purchase on the velvet box. 

_Yes!_ Ohno held on and pulled hard and it nearly didn't, but then the box did slip from her grasp. 

The possessed birthday girl was thrown off balance when the box was snatched away. Ohno didn't wait for her to recover, backing quickly toward the door where Sho was waiting for him, but before either of them could make it through the door the room was suddenly awash in sickly greenish light. 

The woman collapsed to the stone floor and the train of her silky pink dress puddled beneath her. Where she had stood now towered a menacing faceless cactus-Monster, in a black and gold doublet. 

_That's odd,_ Ohno's mind supplied nonsensically. 

"We have to transform," he said distractedly, trying to shake himself out of shock. Sho was already nodding at him. 

The beads of their bracelets began to shine, brightly, boldly blue and red. Then, with startling synchronicity, their metamorphosis began. 

Such light, and color, the spray and splash of water, and the crackle and flicker of flames, and the dance of glitter and deep red rose petals. Then the armor, of course, and the heels, and the hair, and a bow or two. 

"In the name of Arashi, we will punish you!" 

The 'we' was new. Ohno had not realized tandem transformations were a thing, but now that he did he thought it was actually pretty amazing. 

He also thought they looked pretty damn good, for two people about to kick the shit out of a Monster. 

The cactus creature seemed to recover from the distraction of their transformations fairly quickly, and then there was not time to think. Sho charged forward with a hard shove and the Monster went tumbling backward. He shot a quick look at Ohno, nodding at the box cradled in his arms. 

"Get that out of here, and I'll cover you." 

Ohno gave his own affirmative nod and raced into the corridor as quickly as he could, still holding tight to the velvet box. 

Behind him Ohno could hear the sound of crackling flames, and an unpleasant burning odor followed him out of the room, along with the faintest drift of smoke. 

"Be careful, Sakurai-kun," Ohno murmured, not really loud enough for Sho to hear, as he was already speeding through the empty hallway as quickly as he could. 

\--- 

Sho had been pretty certain he could handle this fight. The last time he had faced a Monster the flame-throwing abilities of his microphone had dispersed the danger in seconds. 

Alas, things did not go so well this time. 

At first a cloud of flame enveloped the cactus Monster, scorching and burning... but it did not catch. 

Sho was momentarily disoriented when a blinding flash of light flared in his vision, and suddenly the cactus Monster was not one, but two cactus Monsters. 

_Ah…fuck._

One of them rounded on him, and Sho's body moved ahead of his thoughts and he was ducking. The swiped punch of a long bumpy green arm covered in pointy spines whizzed just over his head. That was _way too_ close. 

The same Monster, which Sho noted was wearing a gold doublet, the original cactus-thing, darted toward the door following the path that Ohno had taken. 

Sho couldn't let that happen. 

"HOLD UP!" he shouted after it. He had gotten his bearings, and he was ready to try again. 

Before he could attack however, the second Monster was on him. Wriggling green plant vines flew across the space between them to coil tightly around his arms, pinning them to his sides. He couldn't move, though he did struggle, flexing as hard as he could against the grip around him, but it was no use. 

The other cactus Monster was getting away. The vine only tightened around him, and the Monster began to wind Sho further into its hold, drawing him ever closer. 

He planted his feet, and it gave him a little traction, but it wouldn't be enough as the bottoms of his pumps still slid across the shiny marble floor. Sho cursed quite profusely. 

He wasn't sure if she sensed the danger, or just heard his cursing, but his SOUL orb zoomed to life. She had been in his pocket earlier, though he wasn't exactly clear where she had been hiding after his transformation. 

"Sakurai-san," she chimed calmly, then seemed to wait for a response. 

Sho cursed again. Could she not see that he was a little tied up? 

\--- 

Jun made it to the DJ booth. 

He had to worm past several people who were also on the same mission he was, but Jun's giant teddy bear head was actually coming in handy now, because people seemed to just sort of automatically duck out of the way when he came through. 

He waved down the DJ, though it was still several measures of the current song before he got the man's attention. 

"Hey! Do you have the new Ninomiya single?" Jun shouted over the pandemonium. 

The DJ sent him a thumbs-up. 

When Jun spun around, still standing on the slightly raised step just beside the booth, he could see out over the crowd much better. While he waited for the song to be played, Jun squinted through the mesh, trying to see if he could spot Ohno's distinctive cat ears somewhere in the mass of costumed dancers. 

Though he knew not from where, SOUL was suddenly hovering before him, over the heads of the dancers below them, who did not seem to notice her at all. She bounced repeatedly on the side of his costume's head, trying to get his attention. 

Thinking quickly, Jun snatched her out of the air. It was too loud to hear her so close to the speakers. He made to pull her to his ear before he realized… right. He had to take the headpiece off. In retrospect, he wasn't entirely sure why he hadn't thought of it sooner. 

Shuffling along the edge of the crowd, trying not to get pulled right into it, Jun managed to disconnect the large dome that had been resting on his shoulders all night. When he emerged, his hair a tangle of messy strands atop his head, Jun drew in a deep breath of fresh air, enjoying some relief from the claustrophobia of his costume. 

He meant to take the head with him, of course, but the dancers had other ideas... Jun found that his teddy bear head was being carried away, crowd-surfing across the room. Well, he wouldn't be getting it back now. Likely it would be crowd-surfing all night. Jun watched a part of the crowd bounce the bear into the air, and another part of the crowd catch it. 

He had gotten distracted. SOUL was vibrating against his palm. Oops. 

"What's wrong?" he implored her, and finally he could actually hold her to his ear. 

"Matsumoto-san. There is a Monster in the building. Your assistance is required." 

Why did she always have to be so calm in the face of chaos? Jun _knew_ he had been feeling something wrong, now it appeared he hadn't been mistaken. 

"Okay, ah… I've got to find the door." 

It took him a frustratingly long time, but Jun managed to edge around the rest of the room to one of the doors, and squeeze his way out into the hallway. "Which way?" 

SOUL began to direct him, as though she had a map of the building in her head. Jun did not question her, he only followed her instructions carefully as they moved deeper into the stiller spaces of the museum. 

\--- 

Sho was still trapped. He managed to catch hold on the edge of a heavy table with one hand, but it was hard to hold on to anything with his arms pinned, and the Monster was still pulling him back toward it relentlessly. 

He was starting to think he wasn't going to make it out of the room after all. Should he call for help? 

But Sho didn't get the chance, just before he opened his mouth to shout, the sound caught in his throat, because that guy Jun was skidding to a halt through the tall doorframe… in a weird furry brown jumpsuit. His hair looked _super_ messy. 

The hell was he supposed to be exactly? 

Sho didn't really have time to ponder Jun's costume choice too terribly long, which was nice, because Sho did not want his last thoughts to be about that weird jumpsuit. Jun was saying something. 

"Sho-kun!" 

Sho was more than a little shocked at the amount of worry he could hear wavering in Jun's voice. Hadn't he been kind of a dick to the guy? Why did Jun care so much? ...It was a little touching. 

"Hang on, okay? I'll get you free." 

"Look out for the floor," Sho warned him suddenly. "It's slidey..." 

As Jun moved to begin his transformation, reaching for the purple stone pendant around his neck... he stopped short. 

"What's wrong?" Sho asked, attempting to sound less panicked than he was currently feeling. 

"I can't get to my necklace." Jun was yanking at the neckline of his ridiculous costume, trying to tear it, but it wasn't moving. "I- " 

Whatever Jun meant to say was lost, as another thick green vine shot out from the cactus creature, and ensnared him as well. The Monster had them both now. 

_You have to do something!_ Sho's brain was shouting at him, but he didn't know what he could do. _Try one more time._

Planting his feet once more, Sho forced his arms against the vines around him with all of his strength, and all his adrenaline-laced fear behind it. 

"Oh wow." Jun's words filtered through to Sho as the vines snapped around him with an audible _crack_. 

Sho was already dashing for Jun. He nearly collided with him before he stopped enough to get a good, hard grip on the vines and _pull_. He must have done some damage snapping his own, because the vines around Jun gave way far more easily. 

"Run," Sho panted a bit. 

Jun seemed to stare at him dumbfounded for a moment before Sho gave the other man a shove, and then they were both racing for the door, the Monster fast on their heels. 

"I need to get this _thing_ -" Jun dissolved into cursing and yanking at the back zipper of his costume, which he could only just barely reach. 

They skidded around a corner, praying the Monster would lose track of them, and it seemed for a moment it was confused about which way they went. 

"Let me help," Sho whispered, spinning Jun around rather abruptly by the shoulders to get a closer look at his zipper. 

_Almost… damn this thing is tiny…_

_There_. 

Sho managed to yank the zipper straight down Jun's back while Jun immediately began trying to untangle himself from the jumpsuit. _Fucking finally._

"I thought you were supposed to be saving me, not the other way around." Sho knew he probably shouldn't be teasing him right now, and it might draw the Monster's attention, but the words were spilling out before he could stop them. 

Thankfully, it appeared the Monster had stalked off down the corridor in the opposite direction. They were in the clear, for now. _Lucky_. 

"I _was_ trying to save you!" Jun replied. 

His arms were free, though he still needed to extract himself from the bottom half of the costume. Jun's t-shirt was a sideways wrinkled mess, Sho noticed, but it hardly mattered given the circumstances. He wouldn't be wearing it for much longer, anyway. He also noticed that Jun was still talking. 

"Thanks, for helping… You're a good friend." 

Sho thought it was a little unnecessary for him to bring the whole friend thing into it, but there wasn't time to argue about it now. 

He wasn't blushing, he had just overexerted himself taking out all those vines. 

"We have to find Ohno-san," Sho said instead, as he remembered the man in blue had run off with the box that they had been pretty sure contained the Mystical Sapphire Crystal. "He has the crystal." 

"What!?" Jun sounded pretty blindsided, but they didn't have time to stop now. Ohno would need their help. 

"Come on, I'll explain while we look for him." 

Together, Sho and Jun hurried off the way the Monster had gone, and Sho used his senses to track them. _Back into the maze…_

\--- 

Ohno was not entirely sure how he managed to find himself on the roof of the museum (besides the obvious staircase), and yet… there he was. 

On the roof, there was really nowhere to run. One of the cactus Monsters was chasing him. He kept having to dodge, race to the other side of the roof to put some distance between them, and then wait for the Monster to come at him once more. 

It was getting to be really tiring, actually. 

But then there were two Monsters. The second a twin to the first, in red instead of gold, was coming at Ohno now from the opposite side, and he had nowhere to go. 

His heart caught in his throat, and he didn't know if he would make it out of this after all. He held tightly to the box, trying to see a way out as the Monsters slowly backed him toward the edge of the roof, coming up far too close behind him. 

"STOP!" 

The shout rang out across the windy rooftop, and Ohno felt a wave of relief at the sight of Jun and Sho. 

_They're ok._

\--- 

"MatsuJun!" Ohno called out to Jun, and Sho watched him cross the roof to join them, ducking just under the swipe of a cactus-Monster's arm like he was doing a peculiar limbo. 

Sho had to blink rather a lot then, because he was suddenly blinded by the violet light of Jun's transformation. 

He had watched it happen before, but Sho tried to look a little more closely this time. Now that he knew what the experience was like, it was more interesting to watch it happen to someone else. 

He noticed that Jun didn't have any particular type of _thing_ in his transformation, not swirls of water, or flames, or roses. Just lots of light, brilliant rays of purple and white. 

_Maybe he's the storm_ , drifted unbidden through Sho's head, and he would have wondered where the thought came from if they hadn't currently been in mortal danger. 

Also... there was something happening to him. Sho exchanged a look with the blue haired man on Jun's other side, and it seemed he was not the only one. They were posing with Jun now, and saying things they did not know they were going to say. 

"Soldier of water and ice, Ohno Satoshi!" 

"Soldier of fire and passion, Sakurai Sho!" 

"Soldier of moonlight and justice, Matsumoto Jun!" 

Sho couldn't help but feel this was all still very embarrassing, not to mention incredibly confusing, but it did not appear as though they had any choice in the matter whatsoever. 

At the same time that it was terrifying and awkward, however, Sho also felt a bizarre sort of _rightness,_ as if he had found a pair of shoes that fit him just right. 

Not that Jun and Ohno were shoes. This was perhaps a bad analogy. It was just all so _weird_. 

When next they spoke, they spoke in unison, three voices together. 

"We are Arashi! In the name of Arashi, we will punish you!" 

Sho pondered that their catch phrase was a tad redundant, but whatever. Storms were apparently very important. 

Then again, it _felt_ important, and interesting, and he could appreciate that they were all super pretty right now, whilst also acknowledging how super strange it felt, right? 

Did he hear music again? 

\--- 

As they stood wielding their microphones in a small line on the roof, facing off with the dazed-looking cactus Monsters, Jun could hear the music too. 

He noticed the song was different immediately. 

_No, it's the same song_. Only now, there was an entire beginning to the song that had never been there before. 

As the intro kicked in, and the three of them naturally fell into step together… Sakurai Sho was leading it. Sho was not singing though, as Jun and Ohno always did. 

Sho was … rapping? 

This was not what Jun expected to come out of the seemingly reserved man who thus far had refused their friendship. 

Then, Jun couldn't even begin to question it, because it fit so perfectly into their song that it was completely undeniable that whatever Sho was doing, it was great, and he needed to do way more of it. He and Ohno were rapping a bit too now, as the intro proceeded. Jun didn't think he had ever rapped before, so to find that he even could was fairly shocking. 

_Superboy? What?_

As they began to sing, some part of Jun still noted that the song did not yet feel complete. They needed the last soldier, whoever they were, for the song to be whole, and for them to be whole. But it did not appear to stop them from being prepared to kick some Monster ass. 

With some dread, Jun realized that two cactus-Monsters had now become _three_ cactus-Monsters. _One for each of us, I guess..._ He meant to say so, but he was a bit preoccupied with the singing and dancing. 

Jun could feel the music thrashing around them, stirring with an inner power that had not yet been released. 

Jun and Ohno both jumped in their dance, but did not lose step, as a stream of flames, and a long ribbon of scribble-covered scrolls burst from the tip of Sho's microphone. 

Sho looked a bit surprised himself. 

The Monster in the middle crashed to the ground, but as quickly as it had fallen, the other two cactus Monsters glowed at it ominously, and the third began to climb to its feet once more. 

Jun wanted to complain, but he was a little too busy singing for his life. 

\--- 

All three Monsters were coming at them again. Ohno swallowed hard. How were they supposed to fight if these things wouldn't _stay_ dead? 

As the beat drummed on, Ohno found that his body knew what to do, even if he didn't. He performed a series of familiar wiggles and gestures and his own microphone seemed to vibrate in his hand as a wave of water seemed to burst from nowhere, slamming into the cactus-thing on the left- 

-but once again, the Monster was revived. Maybe it was hopeless. 

Above them, the sky darkened with rain-heavy clouds. 

_You are my soul… soul…_

They were lost in the song, but obviously something was not working. During a brief guitar riff, Ohno looked to his right at the others somewhat desperately. _What do we do??_

"We have to hit them together. All three, together." It was Jun, speaking quickly, managing to get the words out just as the chorus wrapped up and Sho started rapping again. 

The younger man sounded so certain. He sounded like he _knew_ , and when Ohno searched himself, he found that he also knew somehow that this would work, if they could do it properly, if they could hit it just right, if their timing was perfect… 

\--- 

As they sang, the song played on, the magic swirled up around them, and they found a good rhythm, though it was not yet perfect. It was difficult still when so many of their pieces remained missing and so much of the song was still incomplete. 

Flames danced from Sho's microphone, a beat later, waves roiled from Ohno's, and a beat after that, Jun's microphone burst with a kind of pure, white light. 

Jun wondered if that was the justice, or the moonlight, but there was no one he could really ask at the moment. 

"It didn't work," Sho interjected as Ohno sang a soulful interlude and he had the briefest of breaks between rhymes. 

Jun had been so certain for a moment that it did work, since all three of the towering cactus Monsters had fallen, but as quickly as they fell, they were getting back up. 

_Our timing was way off,_ Jun thought. _We have to try again._

"Again," Ohno cut through quickly as another chorus came to an end, unknowingly reading Jun's mind. 

There was not much more of the song left. Jun could feel it drawing to an end. They wouldn't have time to try a third time. 

_Here goes nothing._ Jun tried to catch the others' focus with a nod, and the three of them began to circle. As they danced, they waited for the right beat to strike on. 

And they found it. Simultaneously three Arashi soldiers twirled, raised their microphones, and together all three erupted with sparkling energy. 

The music intensified louder around them, and as their attacks connected, the clouds opened above them, drenching them all soldiers and Monsters alike in a heavy deluge of raindrops. 

This time, the Monsters stayed down, hissing into slimey green puddles, until the rain washed even those away. 

Their song was over, for now. 

Jun could still hear singing. Then recognition clicked, and he realized it was the song he had requested from the DJ earlier, and it was now drifting up to them from the stairwell that led to the roof. Ninomiya's new single. 

He didn't really mean to, and perhaps could not have explained why, but Jun started laughing. It was a relief as the tension of the encounter finally eased around them, right along with the slowing drip-drizzle of the rain. 

They were all quite soaked. 

Sho was looking at him, deeply concerned, but that only made Jun laugh harder. Then Ohno started chuckling too. Sho looked intensely confused, but then, Jun noticed the corners of Sho's lips were also twitching a bit up toward a smile. Maybe Sho was warming to them after all, or so Jun hoped. 

Unfortunately, the moment couldn't last. 

\--- 

"Perhaps the queen will be in a better mood, now that I can bring her the crystal," Rei mused smugly. 

Her gown was a deep crimson that glinted in the moonlight, tendrils of gold branching across it in flame-like patterns, and she seemed completely unconcerned by the three Arashi soldiers that stood before her. 

Her distraction had been successful. Rei had managed to snatch the crystal while the soldiers were fighting, and she clutched the velvet box now somewhat proudly. 

"Give it back!" 

When the one with long black pigtails shouted at her, Rei arched one eyebrow icily at him, and only just barely managed not to laugh. How funny. 

The three soldiers all now looked ready to charge her, and Rei was ready for them... but she wouldn't get her chance. Not today, in any case. 

\--- 

Sho wasn't entirely sure what was going on. He had thought the fight was all over, but then a woman was there, the woman in red, the one with the heavily shadowed aura that had disturbed him so much the other day by the park. The cruel expression on her face now gave Sho an awful chill. _There is something dark in her._

If they had to fight her, they would. Sho would. But they didn't get the chance. 

All at once, the lady in the top hat who had saved Jun from the multidimensional leaf-vines the other day was running toward them, placing herself quickly between Jun, at the head of their trio, and the woman in crimson. 

"Tuxedo Mao?" Jun sounded confused. 

Sho assumed that had to be her name. He wondered, really taking in her outfit, if she was some kind of peculiar vampire... Sho didn't know if vampires existed, but then weirder shit had happened to him lately so he wouldn't be surprised. 

"Who are you!?" the woman in red demanded of the new arrival. Sho thought she was being deliberately difficult, since Jun had just said her name, pretty loudly, but whatever. 

"I'll be taking that crystal," Tuxedo Mao said instead, as though there was no sense in questioning her. She was waving a cane threateningly in the woman's direction. 

Sho wondered if they should step in, but then, it seemed like Tuxedo Mao could clearly take care of herself. 

"I would like to see you try... " purred the woman in crimson. 

Then the battle began. 

It was kind of weird for them to watch a battle without actually participating. Sho chewed his lip worriedly and tried to catch Jun's eye. Did he know her? Was she an ally? 

Tuxedo Mao rounded on the woman, and both kicked out at the same time, though neither made contact. 

_Why is everyone always missing each other?_

The cane whipped wildly through the air, and the three soldiers watched as the woman in the long gown managed to dodge each and every swing of it. The woman seemed well used to fighting, in fact, both women did. 

They exchanged a few more hits, and then Tuxedo Mao swung her cane, and made contact… with the box. 

The velvet box went flying high into the air, flipping end over end above them all. 

In dismay, they all watched it fall… and fall… 

Sho did not see Jun moving until it was far too late. He could only watch in growing horror as the man in purple leapt for the velvet box, caught it, and then teetered dangerously on the edge of the building, just before he toppled over it. 

"No!" he heard Ohno cry out beside him, already rushing to the edge. 

Sho followed him numbly, an awful uncomfortable twisting in his stomach because Sho _really_ did not care for heights and they were really _very_ high. But Jun- 

They were not the only ones to rush to Jun's aid. Tuxedo Mao had been much closer. She had somehow managed to get a firm grip on Jun's arm in both of her hands, and she was trying unsuccessfully to drag him back up onto the roof of the museum. 

But she couldn't lift him, and they both tumbled over the edge together. 

"Jun!" Ohno cried again. 

_My nerves can't take this!_ danced wildly through Sho's mind as he came to a halt dangerously close to the roof's edge. 

It was too late. 

Jun, and Tuxedo Mao, were falling, and there was nothing he or Ohno could do about it. 

\--- 

As they fell, and the ground rapidly rushed up to meet them both, Jun hoped wildly for a miracle. Still clutched tightly in his hand, and just as tightly by the hand of Tuxedo Mao, Jun's microphone exploded with light. 

All at once, they were not falling anymore. 

They were floating now. Caught in a transparent purple bubble of magic, they drifted gently… slowly… down… toward… the ground. 

\--- 

On the rooftop, Sho and Ohno watched all of this happen with a mix of fear, shock, and relief. 

He could not look anymore at the long, long fall to the ground. _Nope._ Now that he was sure that Jun was safe, Sho stumbled backward, watching blankly as Ohno seemed to collapse where he stood, looking somewhat emotionally wrecked. 

"You ok?" Sho just felt like he needed to ask. 

Ohno seemed to hesitate for a moment before he nodded, looking up at him now with an expression of lost exhaustion that Sho found somewhat endearing. 

Not that he was ready to admit that, even really to himself. 

Sho heard someone suck their teeth in annoyance, and footsteps rapidly retreating toward the staircase. He looked around in time to see the woman in her crimson gown disappearing down the stairs. 

_Ah… she got away._

Not that Sho really knew what they would do with her if they managed to capture her anyway. It was the principle of the thing. 

\--- 

Jun and Tuxedo Mao were still floating. 

"What is this? What did you do?" she was asking, and Jun couldn't help but find the expression of befuddled wonder on her face incredibly adorable. 

"I have no idea. I'm just glad we're not dead." 

Jun thought he heard her stifle a laugh. 

"Really nice view though," he mused, now that he could look out over the city as the bubble took it's time drifting down. He even found himself humming faintly as they went, aware that his companion probably thought he was being ridiculous. 

There wasn't much else to do up here. 

Thankfully, when he checked, Tuxedo Mao wasn't looking at him like he was strange. She was just smiling at him. Jun was surprised to feel his cheeks flushing, and immediately felt he needed to explain. 

"Sorry, there's a song in my head." It was Nino's song, the last thing he'd heard before everything went to chaos all over again. 

Eventually, their feet found purchase on solid ground, and the bubble around them faded away. 

"I guess you rescued me this time," Tuxedo Mao was saying. 

Jun couldn't really stop himself from smirking at her. "Not really. I'm the one who dragged you off the roof in the first place." 

"Wasn't your fault," she mumbled with a shrug, seemingly not quite able to look at him. Jun thought she may be blushing now too. 

"I guess we're even," he offered instead. 

She seemed to accept that as fair with a real smile, and a nod, finally meeting his eyes. "You guys… you're pretty good when you sing together." 

Jun raised an eyebrow at her. "Am I really terrible by myself?" 

"Well no…" she trailed off, glancing toward the roof of the building where the other two soldiers had last been, her cape moving softly in the wind, before her gaze returned to Jun. "But you're all really good together." 

He was surprised that the compliment hit him so strongly, and he fiddled slightly awkwardly with his microphone. "Thanks," he said eventually. "It just kind of happens, I guess." 

Jun didn't even truly understand their whole dynamic yet himself, and it all felt like it was still evolving... though perhaps that was not such a bad thing. 

"MatsuJun!" That was Ohno's voice. 

Ohno and Sho had made it down from the roof of the museum and out through the bustling party all in one piece. Jun watched the pair heading their way now with some amusement. 

"You're okay!" Jun beamed at them. In all of the commotion of falling off the roof, he had been worried about them. He hadn't meant to leave them on their own with the lady in crimson. Sho was limping a little bit, but other than that, neither of them appeared to be any worse for the wear. He also noticed with some amusement that Ohno's wavy blue hair still looked great, despite all the dancing, and the fighting, and the rain, and the running about. Jun really couldn't stop grinning for some reason. He assumed it was the victory, and the not dying. "We survived again!" 

"We were _seriously_ worried about you," Ohno was saying, and Jun thought the man did look kind of anxious, even now. 

"But I'm fine! Well, it was super odd. My microphone made a bubble… and then the bubble saved us." 

"We saw," said Sho somewhat dryly, but it was nice to see him smiling, even a little. 

They didn't notice at first that Tuxedo Mao had the velvet box, or that she was cracking it open to peek inside. "...This is definitely not it," she sighed. 

That drew everyone's attention. She held up the crystal in question, a necklace with a clear crystal pendant, dangling from a long silver chain. It didn't look like a rainbow, or a sapphire. Jun found as he looked at it that the whole thing was just terribly disappointing. 

"Ah… has anyone seen SOUL?" it finally occurred to him to ask, watching as the not-rainbow-crystal glinted in the sun. There had been, at the very least, two SOUL nodes loose in the museum before the battle, but then Jun had lost track of her in the bustle, the fighting, and the falling. 

"Matsumoto-san. I am here." 

He jumped. She was floating just behind him. When did she get there? 

"This is definitely not the right crystal, right?" He needed to be sure. 

SOUL was quiet for a few moments. Jun wondered if she was scanning it or something. Tuxedo Mao was still holding the necklace, turning it over thoughtfully in her fingers. 

"It is not the Rainbow Crystal," SOUL chimed. 

Behind her white mask, Tuxedo Mao's eyes seemed to widen. "The Rainbow Crystal? You're looking for it too?" 

Jun wondered how she had managed to miss that. Then, Jun hadn't known that she was looking for it either, but it made sense considering they both kept ending up in places that the crystal might be. 

"Yes…" Jun trailed off, watching her closely. It was faint, but there was a note of suspicion in his tone. "Who are you exactly, anyway?" 

"Who knows... " she answered him. 

Jun didn't really know what that was supposed to mean. Did she not know who she was? Or was she just trying to be super mysterious again? Tuxedo Mao did not give them a chance to ask. 

"Perhaps I am your enemy," she threw out vaguely as she wandered away, taking the crystal with her, flicking her cape behind her as she went. 

Jun did roll his eyes this time. He was pretty sure she was going for the mysterious thing. 

\--- 

Before they left, SOUL returned them to their regular clothes. Jun his t-shirt and jeans, as his costume was long since lost to the party, Ohno his French maid dress, though it too looked significantly rumpled now, and Sho, trailing behind them in his robes. They decided to walk from the museum. 

The night was cool, and Jun wanted to enjoy it. He may still have been recovering from his several near-death experiences that evening. 

He was a little surprised that Sho agreed to leave with them, but he was also glad they had the chance to spend more time with him. It had been, to say the least, a wild night. 

They were quiet for a few blocks, but eventually the song looping incessantly through Jun's head was too much, and he started singing it. Nino's single was _so damn catchy._ After half a block, Ohno was singing with him, while Jun beamed at him encouragingly the whole time. For a few verses, they continued on like that. 

When he turned back to look, not pausing his steps, Jun saw that Sho was even smiling again, and swaying a bit to the song. Maybe he wasn't singing along, but it seemed pretty encouraging. 

"You should come with us next time we go to karaoke," Jun found himself making the offer despite knowing he might be rejected again. "Satoshi-kun makes super strong drinks..." 

"I told you, I really hate karaoke," Sho mumbled out his reasoning, as though now it sounded weak even to him. 

Jun arched an eyebrow somewhat expectantly, and Sho's lips pursed in thought. 

Though he did not show it outwardly, Jun felt as though an entire swarm of butterflies had taken up residence in his chest while he waited for him to answer. He glanced at Ohno, who only flashed him a reassuring smile and a thumbs-up. Jun gave him a look. 

"As long as you don't make me do karaoke… I guess it's ok." 

_Did he seriously just finally agree after all of that?_

"Let's have a pajama party!" Ohno announced unexpectedly. 

Both Sho and Jun stared at him dubiously. Where did that come from? 

"…Why?" Jun prompted slowly. 

After a moment of contemplation, Ohno shrugged. "I don't know, it sounds really comfortable." 

Jun snorted at him, and as he patted Ohno reassuringly on the back, Sho started snickering too. Ohno eventually gave in to his chuckles, perhaps at the absurdity of it all. Then they were all laughing again. Perhaps, they would have to face terrible danger tomorrow. For now, the three Arashi soldiers had plans to make, plans that involved comfortable pajamas and some strong drinks. 

But not tonight. Tonight, they were all three exhausted, and slowly they all parted ways on their walk, and headed home to bed. 


	5. Act Five

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ohno does a lot of thinking and has a crisis of confidence.  
> Sho finally comes to karaoke but still won’t sing karaoke.  
> The boys have a pajama party.  
> Feelings are had by everyone. Everything is way too cute and also way too flirty.  
> Some Monsters explode… some things ensue. Enjoy.

Act Five

It was fairly late by the time Ohno finally stumbled through his apartment door. After the elaborate museum party, all of the adrenaline and fighting, and Jun almost dying, he thought it was possible that he had never been so tired in his life. 

Kicking off his shoes, he greeted his fish in their tank, and fed them their little pellets made of algae. He paused to watch them nibble for a bit, despite the way his eyes kept drifting… slowly… 

He shook himself awake, and snickered at the fish. 

“Being a soldier is pretty exhausting,” he informed them, and Ohno thought they wiggled at him. 

Sleep was calling to him, but he would still adhere to his own small but familiar routine. 

“Goodnight~” he sang to his fish, switching off the tank’s light. The filter burbled on, and Ohno found the familiar sounds comforting as he prepared for bed. 

As he was brushing his teeth, Ohno remembered SOUL, and paused to rescue her from his apron pocket in the laundry pile. He positioned her temporarily on the ledge of his sink before he carried on with his brushing. 

“Sorry, SOUL-chan,” he apologized around his toothbrush. 

Though her light was low, she brightened when he addressed her, fading slowly between colors, blue, purple, red, yellow. Ohno wondered if the yellow was SOUL’s color. He wondered what color the final soldier would be. 

“Why are you remorseful, Ohno-san?” Her question drew him from his pondering. 

“I dropped you in the laundry,” he explained when he'd finished rinsing. Ohno wondered if the AI even understood why that would be offensive. Then, he wasn’t entirely sure that _he_ understood why it would be offensive. 

“I am virtually indestructible,” was SOUL’s eventual answer. 

Ohno blinked down at the little node beside his faucet and really pondered that, and her. Indestructible? What exactly was she? How many of these nodes was she in? Was she in all of them at once, or only one at a time? What was that blockage she had talked about the other day? 

What did being indestructible have to do with laundry? 

Ohno figured if he started asking SOUL all of his questions, there would never be time for anything else, least of all sleep. In the end, Ohno’s instinct was to trust her, and he trusted his instincts, so far anyway. 

As he put away his toothbrush and collected his SOUL node, Ohno's mind was still turning. He knew he would need to take time to ruminate on everything that had ensued tonight at the museum, but after sleep. When he crawled into bed and closed his eyes, flickers of remembered moments still swirled through Ohno’s mind. Flashes of his worry for Jun and refrains of that song of theirs echoed through his head, with their voices together, and Sho and Jun dancing beside him as they sang. 

When all of the other details fell away, that was the image that stayed with Ohno, and followed him into his dreams. 

\--- 

The next morning, after breakfast of course, Ohno decided to get some things done. He messaged his mother, who begged him to come home for dinner soon. He did some dishes, which he did not want to do, and he finished some paperwork that he also didn't want to do. 

Ohno would need to return to work tomorrow, and as always there were crafts he needed to prepare for, and supplies to organize and clean. Really, the work of an arts and crafts teacher was never done. He was sure he must spend more than half of his working-life cleaning up after his students, if only because when they were all having fun, he habitually struggled with telling them to stay within the lines. He had been admonished by his superiors over it more than once, but Ohno really didn’t mind if the kids got paint and glitter and glue on the floor, or on the walls, or on each other, as long as they were all having fun and creating something interesting together. 

The mess didn’t seem like such a terrible trade off to him. 

Speaking of the mess… 

Ohno settled in at his small dining table and spent some time dealing with the numerous cups and trays full of dirty paintbrushes that were starting to back up on his kitchen counter. 

It was a very peaceful sort of process. 

He listened to the radio as he worked, humming along sometimes. He swished tiny brushes that were made for tiny hands in warm water, and gently worked them clean until his fingertips were crinkled, and sore, and stained with residual paint. 

There were always more paintbrushes to clean. Ohno found that they were a bit like socks, they tended to pile up. 

As he worked, the radio droned on and sang at varying intervals. His mind drifted, and Ohno finally let himself examine the events of the previous evening. So much had taken place in the space of just a few short hours. Luckily, no one was seriously harmed. Ohno wasn’t sure that would still be the case if all three of them hadn't been at the party, together. All four, actually, if you counted the lady in the top hat. Ohno still wasn't entirely sure how to feel about her. 

They had started making progress with Sho, which was encouraging. They hadn't found the Rainbow crystal, but they did manage to thwart another Monster attack, and uncover some interesting information... All in all, the fear from the night before had been exhausting, but the victory was worth the struggle. 

He still had so many questions, but Ohno felt for sure that they were on the right track. They just needed to try and stay on it. 

\--- 

Several days later, Ohno was starting to grow concerned. He went back to work, and things were as normal. SOUL had been very quiet, and there did not appear to be any new Monsters discovered, but... 

Ohno hadn’t heard anything from Jun since Sunday morning, and he hadn't seen him since they parted ways on Saturday night, after the party. Of course, at this point he was fairly positive that Jun could handle himself just fine, but... 

He was also a little disappointed. They didn't get a chance to talk about all of the new developments, as Ohno was used to doing. They hadn't been able to discuss things like Jun nearly dying, or all the new progress with Sho, or what Jun thought about the tuxedo girl, or those cactus Monsters, or that creepy woman in crimson, but... 

Really, at the heart of it, Ohno just missed him. 

As he ate his breakfast the radio chimed at him, and Ohno vaguely listened as they rattled out horoscopes for that week. His own was a tad troubling. 

_Soon the strength of your friendships will be tested, and they may not measure up._

That sounded more than a little ominous, considering everything that was going on in his life. Given the current state of things, the prediction sent the wheels spinning in Ohno’s head, and once they started to turn, he couldn't slow them down. He became caught in his own deep pondering. He thought about Jun, and everything that was happening between them, right along with all of the other things currently weighing down his mind. 

He was discovering, more and more, that he always looked forward to seeing Jun these days. Even if it was only for an hour or two in the evenings, after work, or during lunch, it always made his day better. It was nice to have someone to talk to again on a regular basis who was older than ten, and not a fish. If he were being honest with himself, Ohno would have to admit how startlingly quickly Jun was becoming one of the most important people in his life, all over again. Despite the accompanying absurdity of their destinies, he was honestly glad he could reconnect with Jun. He was grateful for whatever fate or luck led him here... 

Unfortunately, none of that did anything at all to stop him from feeling inadequate sometimes. It didn't stop him from fretting that he might not be good enough. Sometimes, the raw force of his emotions over the things and people in his life only made Ohno’s self-doubt more pronounced. What if he wasn’t up to the task? What if he failed Jun? …Or hurt him? What if he really messed this up somehow? 

He hadn't been lying when he told Sho that he understood being afraid of friendships. Friendships could be terrifying. _Relationships_ were terrifying sometimes. With some people… some people just felt so much more important. What was it exactly about Jun that was so significant? There had always been something special about him of course, but lately, sometimes, Ohno felt a bit like he was flying too close to the sun (or maybe the moon) when Jun was around. 

Since he didn't think he was all that special himself, he truly didn't understand where he fit into the picture. Would he and Jun have gotten so close in the last few weeks, if it weren’t for the whole Fighting-Evil state of affairs? If Jun had found Sho as a soldier first, instead of him, would Jun still think Ohno was worthy of his time? It seemed like Jun really liked Sho, which was understandable, because Sho was really interesting, but it made him wonder why Jun even needed him now, if Sho was around with his amazing Monster-finding abilities. What use was an art teacher in a battle, really? 

Did it matter if Ohno wasn’t very interesting? Maybe it shouldn’t matter. Though, maybe it did anyway. 

For the time being, Ohno knew he needed to try and shake off his worries. It was just a silly horoscope, right? He shouldn’t let it get into his head. Even if his gut was telling him… that it was already there. 

\--- 

Before the weekend rolled around, Ohno finally heard from Jun. He was so startled to see Jun’s message pop up on his phone, he very nearly dropped a tray of colored pencils (which he had just spent two hours sorting by color) all over the floor of his classroom. By now, he definitely missed Jun’s company. It felt like a great relief to Ohno when he asked if they could meet at headquarters after work. 

Maki was working again today. She was getting to be a familiar face to Ohno by now. He offered her a somewhat hesitant smile and a pleasant greeting. 

“Good afternoon!” she greeted him back warmly. “Where’s Matsumoto-san today?” 

“Ah, I’m supposed to be meeting him here.” 

Probably, he could have left it at that, but he was curious, and he was early. 

“Do you think I’m interesting?” he questioned her, as casually as he could manage. 

She gave him a curious look. “Eh…? I- um...” 

Ohno realized it was an odd question, since she really didn’t know him very well. He felt immediately bad for asking so suddenly. “Um, never mind. I’m sorry, that’s a weird question. I’m gonna- uh. I’m going in now... ” 

She was still looking at him a bit strangely. Ohno tried to give her a reassuring smile as he shuffled his way back toward the hidden door. He was early, so Ohno did not expect that Jun would be there yet, and he wasn’t. Nothing appeared to be out of place at headquarters, so he dug SOUL out from his book satchel and placed her kindly on the center table. 

Her light seemed faint, and Ohno could only assume from it that she was busy at the moment. 

Now to wait. 

\--- 

Jun was late. 

Ohno tried not to worry that something might be wrong. He wondered if he should try messaging Jun? But before he could the door was opening. 

“Oh, come _on_ … just listen to it! You might like it, you know. His voice just makes you _feel_ good,” Jun was chatting. 

Ohno wondered if Jun was on the phone, until he spotted Sho coming in through the door behind him. _He’s actually here._ For once Sho wasn't in his Shinto attire, which was a nice change, and Jun looked casually fashionable as always. Ohno often wondered how he did that so consistently. 

“You know I’m not interested in karaoke,” Sho was grumbling good-naturedly. 

“You don’t have to sing! It’s not karaoke! Just listen to his new single, you will absolutely love him. Just one song.” 

_Ah,_ Ohno mused to himself. _He’s trying to recruit another fan._ As a huge fan of Ninomiya Kazunari himself, Ohno certainly couldn’t fault Jun for trying to spread the love around. Sho, however, did not really seem receptive to the spreading. 

“Seriously, Jun. I just got here, could you back off a little bit?” 

_When did they get so familiar?_ drifted through Ohno's head, though he tried to dismiss the annoyed feeling. It wasn’t really his business, was it? 

“Jun-kun,” he tried greeting. “How-” But before he could ask Jun how things were going, the debate continued. Ohno smiled politely, and decided he should let them finish their argument-thing. He wasn't nearly as bothered over the whole thing as they were. 

“You are really going to make me fight for this... listen to one single. Just one.” Jun sounded extremely determined. 

“I told you, I’m not interested. I really don’t listen to pop music.” 

Sho was making a face that Ohno might have found comical if his mood were any better, but at the moment his mood was failing him. He felt tired, and annoyance needled faintly at the edges of his subconscious. Forcing another small smile, though he wasn't sure they noticed, he listened to them talk. Jun's argument was actually very compelling... If Ohno hadn't already been a Ninomiya fan, he thought this would probably have convinced him. 

“He’s my favorite, please? You really have to listen before you make a judgement. Nino’s not _just_ pop either, and he writes his own songs. Ohno-kun? Back me up?” 

Ohno opened his mouth to do just that, but he didn't get that far, Sho cut him off. 

“There’s no need. I’m not interested.” He didn't sound like he was planning to reconsider. 

Ohno couldn't help wondering why this was so important to Jun, and also why Sho was so determined to avoid hearing a couple of songs... unless he was just doing it to mess with Jun. He watched, a bit perplexed, as Jun abandoned his arguments, in favor of trying to shove a small plastic flash-drive into the front pocket of Sho’s jeans. Sho made some attempts to dance away, but only created just enough distance to keep his pockets out of Jun's reach. 

_That can't be fair,_ Ohno nearly said aloud, but then he was a little distracted by the whole exhibition in general. 

Since Jun’s front-pocket strategy wasn't working, he was starting to try for Sho’s back-pockets instead. Sho retaliated by spinning in place, keeping himself and his pockets just out of reach. 

“Nooo, I don’t want it! I don’t like boring pop songs. Get it away~” Sho was smiling, but he was still protesting, and Jun had started laughing at some point, but he wasn't giving up either. The two of them went on with their 'battle' for a while longer. 

They didn’t notice when Ohno flopped back onto the couch again, yawning. He might as well let them sort the predicament out on their own. 

_Things have really changed this much…_ Ohno didn't know exactly when the shift between Jun and Sho had occurred, but he could see it now so plainly. He wondered if the experience of almost dying together had this sort of effect. 

As the evening wore on, he never got the chance to ask Jun how he was doing. He didn't actually get to talk to him much at all, or Sho for that matter. Sho was given a quick tour of their special room, then SOUL answered a few of his more pressing questions. Jun tried _again_ to get him to listen to Nino's songs, unsuccessfully. Before they realized it the time had quickly passed, it was late, and they all needed to get home. 

\--- 

On his quiet walk home Ohno felt pretty defeated. Frustratingly when he did finally crawl into bed that night, he couldn’t sleep. He laid there in indecision for quite some time before he began to feel that the whole sleeping endeavor was a futile effort. 

Maybe, he should just see if there were any late-night movies on… 

A few minutes of flipping channels later, Ohno found something interesting. An old, black-and-white, dramatic movie where everyone always seemed to be yelling about their feelings. 

Several scenes in, Ohno was a bit caught up in the plot, but he could also feel the exhaustion from the day pulling at his mind. When sleep finally took him over Ohno barely noticed it, but in his dream the two women from the movie faded, and were suddenly not women at all. Now they were Ohno and Jun, standing by a fireplace in black and white, and having a rather intense stare-down. 

Except Jun was not really Jun. His face was apathetic, disturbingly emotionless, and all of the warmth was gone from his eyes. 

“You didn’t really think we were close, did you?” 

In the dream, Ohno tried to talk, but the words wouldn’t travel from his brain to his mouth. Everything felt caught in a fog of uncertainty. He wanted to ask Jun what was wrong, but he didn't have the voice. 

“How pathetic, you really thought I needed you.” Jun purred a cruel sort of laugh, and it was undeniably Jun’s voice, but Ohno had never heard him laugh like that, or sound so unlike himself, so unkind. 

Something in dream-Ohno’s heart broke. He felt completely formless, as if he did not even have a mouth to speak the words that he wanted to say... Then Jun was drifting away from him… or he was drifting… somewhere... 

When Ohno stirred some hours later, he only barely remembered the dream. A different movie was playing now. Ohno didn't spare it a moment's attention, only shut off the television, and made his way back to bed. By the morning he would forget that he dreamed anything at all, but that feeling, some echo of the sorrow, stayed with Ohno all day. 

\--- 

The next night, hunched at his desk, staring and not seeing at next month’s lesson plans for an undetermined amount of time, Ohno’s mind wandered far and away from how many rolls of aluminum foil he needed to acquire. 

It was late. 

He was thinking about Sho again, and the conversation they shared while searching the halls of the museum last weekend. Sho's words were returning to him, bringing with them the same deeply sad feeling Ohno felt when he first heard them. 

_“I guess I’ve just… lost a lot of people. Eventually you start to realize that everyone leaves. I don’t know if I really see the point in bothering with friends if everyone is just going to go away in the end. We all end up alone anyway.”_

Ohno had really wanted to argue with Sho that there _was_ still a point, that the good parts were always worth the rough parts, but at the time, he hadn't said anything. He hadn’t wanted to push Sho any farther away from them, with things already so tenuous. 

If Sho was actually warming to Jun then Ohno thought it was a good thing, probably. It did seem like Sho needed a friend, and Ohno was glad that he found one. 

_Except he took **your** friend. That’s not really okay, is it? _

Where did that come from? Ohno blinked at his sprawl of folders and notes and lists. He sighed, rubbed at his eyes, and tried to find where he'd left off, but the thoughts came again, leaving him with one parting fear: 

_What if you’re the one who gets left behind?_

Ohno didn’t particularly want to entertain the idea. He didn’t even want to buy it a drink. It was starting to become pretty clear to him that he would have to figure this out, or his jealousy was going to keep bothering him. Possibly, it would even get worse. 

No, he had to do something. He didn’t want to miss his chance, either. 

\--- 

It was painfully early. 

Jun was not ready to face the sun, and honestly had no desire to do so for a long time. He tried to tunnel back under his covers, but something was halting his progress. 

“MatsuJun?” Someone was shaking him. 

“Huh?” Jun blinked blearily, and tried to think through the throbbing in his head. Last night his client kept him out drinking till nearly four in the morning before Jun finally managed to politely decline her desire to do one more round of shots and go home. 

That was only… Jun squinted at his clock… three hours ago. 

“The hell are you doing here?” he finally managed to get out, and promptly felt guilty for being so harsh, because Ohno looked unusually nervous. He should probably apologize. “Sorry…bad headache.” 

“I brought coffee?” Ohno sounded almost painfully hopeful. He was clearly dressed for work, but he was standing beside Jun’s bed, a lidded coffee cup in hand. 

How exactly was Jun supposed to turn this down? 

Not that he really wanted to. 

“… okay. I accept your coffee.” His voice still felt all wonky from hours of karaoke and not enough sleep. While his brain made attempts to put thoughts together coherently, Jun tried to sit up, and patted the bed for Ohno to sit too. 

It was actually super nice to see him again. Jun felt pretty bad that he had been so distracted with work lately. He missed their lunches. Carefully taking the cup, Jun sniffed but did not sip. Even through the insulated holder, he could feel that it was still too hot. He wondered if Ohno got it at that place by the park. 

“What’s this for?” Not that Jun was complaining, really, but it was a little… out of nowhere. 

Ohno looked anxious for a moment before he answered. “I wanted to talk, and I woke up early so… I thought maybe I could bring you some coffee, to make up for… waking you up so early.” 

Jun thought that was very kind of Ohno, but still didn’t entirely understand why he looked so anxious. What could be so important he needed to show up this early? 

“What’s wrong.” It was definitely more of a demand, than it was a question. 

“Nothing! Nothing’s wrong,” Ohno said quickly, and Jun relaxed a little but Ohno continued. “I just... have been thinking, a lot. About things.” 

Jun did not feel any more enlightened but he was trying to be patient. The smell of the coffee was helping. 

“I really just came here to say something,” Ohno was saying. 

Jun did not point out that he was already doing that. “What do you want to say, exactly?” 

Ohno was quiet for a little bit, and Jun started to get nervous that something actually _was_ wrong. He was starting to get annoyed that Ohno wouldn’t just spit it out, but then what Ohno did next made the wait entirely worth it. 

“I just wanted to say… I’m seriously glad we reconnected, and I missed seeing you this week, and I hope everything is okay... ” It seemed to be taking Ohno a moment to be sure he said everything that he wanted to say, and then he nodded once, and promptly kissed Jun right on the forehead. 

He lingered for a beat ( _with his lips,_ Jun’s mind supplied) and then Ohno was moving away. 

“Have a good day~!” 

“Wait, you’re leaving?” Jun didn’t realize he had been looking at Ohno speechless until the man slid off the bed, and started backing toward the door. Ohno was smiling, but he still appeared oddly tense. 

Jun wanted to say a lot of things to him just then, like that he missed him too, and that he should stay... but before he could get the words out Ohno was gone, stumbling out the door, shoes in hand. 

Then Jun was alone, blushing at the lid of his coffee cup. _What the hell was that really about?_

\--- 

“He kissed your forehead,” Sho repeated. 

“Yes. ...We’ve established that.” 

Sho and Jun stood in the courtyard of the shrine later that  
afternoon, and Sho was pulling dusty boxes out of an old shed, for his  
grandmother, apparently. Evidently, Sho did not wear robes for manual labor. Jun was decidedly not  
paying attention to Sho’s rolled-up sleeves, general sweaty-ness, and the  
whole… process of the lifting and the putting down of boxes.

He just wasn’t looking... mostly. He was here to talk about Ohno, and enjoy the popcorn he was having for lunch. This was not the time for distractions. 

“Why are you talking to _me_ about this?” Sho asked, sounding surprisingly resigned to the conversation. 

Jun was finding it somewhat difficult to talk to Sho about this at all, when Sho kept repeating everything he said and interjecting irrelevant questions. 

So he ignored the question, and continued, around the pieces of popcorn he was tossing into his mouth. “The kiss is not the point, the point is, he looked super nervous... and he brought me coffee, and he told me he missed me.” 

Jun did not see the look of conflict currently brewing on Sho’s face because he was busy pitching popcorn pieces into the air. He missed his mouth occasionally, but he was catching most of the kernels he tossed, and the rest landed harmlessly on the ground. 

“So, you think it was like… a confession?” Sho eventually asked. 

He sounded, and looked, rather intensely serious about the question, which startled Jun a bit. Why did everything have to be so complicated? 

“I have no idea. Maybe? It’s not like he kissed me on the lips. Maybe it was just… friendly.” 

When Jun chanced a look at Sho, the other man was staring back at him rather flatly, and Jun sighed. “Right, okay, maybe not. I just… don’t know what’s up with him, he’s acting odd.” 

Sho disappeared back into the shed, and only replied when he'd emerged once more with another box. He was speaking with some effort. Jun assumed it must be a heavy box. 

“Maybe it was just friendly... maybe he was just really nervous. Wouldn’t you be?” 

Jun tried to put himself in Ohno’s place. It was hard when in general, Jun didn’t really understand the point of confessions. He preferred it when things just… happened, naturally. It was hard for Jun to imagine being anxious about something he would never do, so he shrugged. 

“I don’t know. My head hurts.” 

“Because you drank too much,” Sho chided him. 

“Shut up.” Jun tossed a piece of popcorn at him and it bounced weakly off Sho’s shoulder. 

“Oi… I have to sweep all of this up later, you know.” 

Somewhat apologetically, Jun shook the popcorn tin at Sho. “You can have the rest... ” 

Sho accepted it with a sigh, and gave up on the boxes for now to plop down on the shed’s small wooden step. This time, Jun did see the emotions warring across Sho’s face, and he wondered, as he often did lately, what was behind them. 

“He might be jealous,” Sho eventually said. 

Jun didn’t follow. “Of me?” 

“Of…” Sho might have been blushing, but it was hard to tell when he was so overexerted already. Then he waved a hand vaguely between them, and what he was trying to say clicked into place for Jun, and he decided Sho was definitely blushing. 

_Oh._ Was he that obvious? 

“He has nothing to be jealous about,” Jun said after a moment. He did not really consider what his words might mean to Sho, because he was too busy being annoyed at Ohno for being ridiculous. 

It only occurred to him when Sho coughed quietly into the tin of popcorn, that it might sound like Jun meant Sho had no chance with him. He sighed in a rather put-upon sort of way. 

“I didn’t mean it that way,” Jun pointed out dryly. “ _No one_ has anything to be jealous about. You’re both great. Everyone is great.” 

Maybe Jun was trying too hard to smooth things over. Now he was worried that he had hurt Sho’s feelings, as well as Ohno’s. 

This was just very unfair, Jun decided. “I don’t know what to do.” 

“You could try talking to him about this, instead of me.” Jun was a little surprised by the level of sarcasm in Sho’s tone, but when he looked, Sho’s expression was kind. 

For better or worse, Jun did not take Sho’s advice. Another idea was percolating in his head. 

Sho set aside the popcorn, wiped his hands on his jeans, and went back to his box lifting. 

“Maybe we should do that sleepover he wanted to have,” Jun mused, and heard a mysterious _thunk_ from somewhere in the shed. 

“We?” Sho said after a minute, nearly tripping off the step before he set another box down on the cart with the others. 

“You did agree to come,” Jun reminded him. 

Sho was still making a face at him. “But… isn’t that going to be _super_ weird after everything we just talked about?” 

If it was weird, Jun decided he would find a way to work it out. They needed to be a team. SOUL said as much. They needed to be… unified, or something. 

“It’s fine. It will be fine. He’s thinking too much, we’re all under a lot of stress… this will be good for us. Like a retreat!” 

“To your bedroom.” Sho pointed out. 

“It’s fine,” Jun repeated. “And you’re coming.” 

Sho did not argue with him again. Jun was quietly excited. 

\--- 

_Interlude_

_Tucked away in the dark corner of a nowhere dimension, the crystal castle shimmered frivolously and within, Usagi was holding another audience._

_“Your majesty.” Rei kneeled before her queen once more. “I have uncovered further information which may lead to the discovery of the Rainbow Crystal.”_

_“Rei…” That was not a promising tone in her queen’s voice. “I do not want to hear uncertainties! FIND ME THE CRYSTAL! THE REAL ONE!”_

_“I understand, your majesty. I will verify the crystal’s identity. If it is the true Rainbow Crystal, I will not fail to bring it to you.”_

_“That’s right. And if you do, you will be… generously rewarded.”_

_Rei bowed her head. “There is only one thing that I desire, your majesty.”_

_Usagi smirked. Indeed._

\--- 

If there was anything Jun knew how to do? It was throw a party. Admittedly, this was the first pajama party he ever planned, but it was Ohno’s request, so he would do it correctly. 

There was (obviously) popcorn, and some candy, and drinks that would perchance be inappropriate at your typical slumber party. Jun made a punch of his own recipe that was popular at summer parties and (after a few unsuccessful attempts) succeeded in producing a passable batch of jello shots. They were color-coded. 

Actually, even Jun had to admit he may have gone a little overboard, now that he stood back to really look at his tiny apartment. 

The floor was covered with blankets, and a fair number of pillows, and everything was pastel colors. Jun also picked them all out matching pajamas. They were also color-coded. When he texted Sho for his size, Sho had sent him a lot of question marks but eventually also provided the right size. Ohno did not even question it. 

There was a small karaoke machine in the corner that Jun was planning to introduce very gently for obvious reasons. Nino’s entire discography was on hand, just in case. 

Jun was a little bit at a loss when it came to finding activities that were normal at a slumber party and would not be exceedingly boring for drinking adult men to engage in. 

He settled on a pack of playing cards. 

When Ohno and Sho arrived, Ohno first, and Sho twenty minutes later, they were each directed immediately into Jun’s closet of a bathroom to change into their designated sleepwear. Jun was, of course, already wearing his. 

\--- 

Ohno was more than a little astounded at Jun’s enthusiasm. 

He was in Jun’s apartment just the other day, but it looked entirely different now. He noticed that Jun even put up streamers, and Ohno felt that was appropriate, because even though it was not his birthday yet, this almost felt a little bit like it was anyway. 

Jun really went all out. 

Ohno wasn’t entirely sure why Jun was so excited by this party idea, but then the man did like parties, and Ohno was also totally appreciative anyway. Instead of questioning it, he just rolled with it. Which was exceedingly easy, because Jun was an incredibly good host. Drinks were abundant, the snacks were readily available, and for the time being, Jun was letting Sho be in charge of the music. 

Ohno was actually having a good time, and he really felt like he might have needed this. 

It occurred to him, after some tipsy pondering and Jun somewhat obviously fussing over him more than usual, that this might be Jun’s way of trying to reassure him that things would be okay. 

Honestly, Ohno was prepared to feel extremely uncomfortable all night. He was prepared for the vibe to be completely awkward, like it had been the day Sho came to headquarters for the first time, but those feelings never surfaced. 

In the back of his mind, Ohno’s insecurities were never truly gone, but for now… they were placated. He knew Jun went to all this trouble so they could bond as a team, and Ohno felt then just a little less forgotten, and a little less like he was losing Jun. 

He would make an effort for that, any day of the week. 

\--- 

They played a couple rounds of cards, they laughed together, but when Sho tried to bring up something about their mission, Jun shushed him. 

“We can talk about that stuff later, let’s not worry about it now.” 

Jun didn’t want to stress Ohno out, since this was sort of his party, or at least, he threw the party to cheer Ohno up so he wanted it to be… cheerful. He was grateful when Sho seemed to accept the ban on soldier talk with no argument. 

_Good. He needs a break from worrying about this too,_ his mind supplied, not quite pausing to acknowledge that Jun himself might also need a break. 

It took no small amount of bothering, and a threat to take away his jello, but Jun got Sho to agree to let them pull out the karaoke machine and sing a few of Nino’s songs, but only after they promised profusely that they would not make Sho sing anything. 

They were all set to go, but Jun needed to pee first. 

\--- 

While they waited, Ohno tilted his head at Sho and the rest of him went with it a little bit. 

“You know. You were rapping in the last fight, but you were singing too. Your voice sounds fine, you shouldn’t be afraid of singing.” 

Ohno did not really mean to say all that, but the alcohol facilitated his openness. Sho looked back at him with some surprise, and Ohno felt for the second time (the first time was that night at the museum) that he was getting to see Sho, the person, and not the filtered perception the other man liked to project. 

“I’m not afraid. It’s not really about my voice,” Sho explained, fiddling with some popcorn but not really eating it. “It’s other stuff.” 

He did not sound defensive to Ohno, just resigned. Ohno didn’t know what ‘other stuff’ could be, but there wasn’t time to worry about it because Jun was back, and he wanted to sing first. 

Ohno scooted closer to the tray of blue jello shots. They were _super_ good. 

\--- 

When it was Ohno’s turn to sing, Jun encouraged him to sing a long, slow ballad. 

Ohno’s voice was so good, Jun was hardly going to pass up an opportunity to enjoy it fully… but it was hard to appreciate the vocals, when Ohno kept making faces at him and doing inappropriate dances while Sho laughed hysterically. 

Ohno concluded the song by falling down beside Jun and doing an unnervingly good job of keeping a straight face whilst gently stroking Jun’s arm. Sho was still laughing. 

“Stop it, what are you doing. You’re adorable, go away.” 

Jun shoved at Ohno halfheartedly, doing a bad job of hiding his beaming, but then Ohno was grinning too, they were all smiling, so he didn’t really have to hide it. 

\--- 

Jun somewhat underestimated the amount of alcohol that Sho and Ohno would consume. The two men also finished off what Jun considered to be an obscene amount of jello shots. Certainly, Jun was significantly drunk, but he was not… Sho and Ohno’s level of drunk. 

As the night progressed, they were all somewhat running out of patience for karaoke. Sho, in particular, still seemed disinterested in participating, and Jun and Ohno could only sing so many songs. 

They were all rapidly rolling toward the point where they were just a little too drunk. 

Astonishingly, Sho actually admitted that he enjoyed some of Nino’s songs. Jun counted that as a win. He smirked victoriously at Ohno though it was largely missed because Ohno was busy climbing to his feet, somewhat wobbly, and yet still somehow with surprising grace. 

Jun warned him to be careful, but Ohno waved him off and went to pee. 

“Oh god,” said Sho, collapsing back onto a pile of pillows. “I can’t feel my lips. They’re completely numb.” 

It was quiet in the room now with the karaoke switched off, for which Jun imagined his upstairs neighbor was likely thankful. 

“Let me try.” Jun was way past thinking when he reached over and prodded at Sho’s lips speculatively. Sho shot Jun an uncertain look but didn’t stop him or pull away. Jun just kind of smirked down at him. “I can feel them. They’re still here.” 

“Uhm,” said Ohno. 

Jun pulled his hand back with a jolt and looked to Ohno standing in his bathroom doorway, who at that moment in time was much too drunk to hide the conflicted longing on his face. 

_He should be closer_ , drifted across Jun’s cloudy mind. 

But then Ohno swayed precariously and some underlying instinct kicked into gear and Jun was on his feet and at his side in the space of a few seconds. 

“Hey, hey… careful. You ok?” 

“Everything went sideways,” Ohno said. 

“That’s probably the jello,” said Sho to Jun’s ceiling. “For me, it’s all backwards.” 

_Backwards?_ Jun was far too bombed to try and figure out what that meant, but he managed to get Ohno to the bed, and sort of rolled the other man into it. 

“You stay.” He supposed, since he was the host, it wasn’t a huge reach for him to wind up tucking in his guests. 

“Yes~” Ohno agreed easily. Rather impulsively, Jun petted his hair, and Ohno sighed, and Jun liked the sound of it so he did that a little bit longer, even though the world was tilting slowly on him too. 

Sho did not seem to observe any of this. When he got quiet and Jun peeked back to check on him, Sho appeared to be falling asleep, if he was not there already. His hand was still on one of the popcorn tins. 

More than a little reluctantly, Jun left Ohno. He swayed a little dangerously himself when he stood straight but managed to gather up one of the bigger blankets and drape it over Sho. Jun rescued Sho’s popcorn from the floor, then weaved over to shut out the lights. 

Standing there, drunk in the dark, Jun slowly pondered his choices. 

Should he lay on the floor with Sho? 

Should he squeeze into his bed with Ohno? 

There were arguments for both choices, Jun’s brain supplied, though it appeared a little fuzzy on what those arguments were just at the moment. 

Well then. His bed was much more comfortable, and that rather made the decision for Jun. 

He crawled up over Ohno to get to the empty space on the bed and all but collapsed beside him. Ohno made a slightly aware noise, and Jun nudged him until Ohno scooted over a little more. 

Jun meant to cover himself, but he found he was so comfortable that he did not have the energy to move. 

“Jun?” 

His eyes had drifted shut, but at Ohno’s quiet voice, they blinked open to find the other man peering at him through the shadows between them. “Hm?” 

“Sorry… if I was weird this week, just…’mean I… did miss you.” 

Jun sighed into the pillow they were sharing and was thankful that it was too dark for Ohno to tell he was flushed. “Go to sleep.” 

They were both drunk, and Sho might be a light sleeper, and they were super close right now and truly… Jun didn’t want Ohno to say or do anything that he might forget (or regret) in the morning. Either of them, really. 

Even if he was drunk Jun knew he cared too much about Ohno to risk it. 

But he could feel Ohno go slightly tense beside him, and after a moment of drunken indecision, Jun shifted to face him on the narrow bed. 

“You’re worrying too much,” he sighed, as quietly as he possibly could, because he could almost feel how tenuous things were, and his head was still spinning and Ohno was so close. “It’s okay… don’t have to make it so complicated. Now sleep. Sleep now.” 

Jun’s objective was to kiss Ohno’s forehead, fittingly, but his aim was a little off in the dark and it landed on the bridge of Ohno’s nose instead. That worked too. 

If he were sober, and less tired, Jun might’ve realized that he wasn’t expressing himself that well, that he might be giving off the wrong impression. Instead, Jun surrendered to the irresistible pull of sleep. 

He did not really register Ohno’s heavy sigh. 

\--- 

The next morning it was pretty abundantly obvious that they were all a bit hungover, though some… were more fortunate than others. Case in point, Ohno was currently huddled under the blankets on Jun’s bed, whimpering. 

Sho and Jun sat on the blanket-layered floor quietly sipping their coffee and browsing their phones. Occasionally one or the other would hum or snicker at something, but they were trying to be considerate for Ohno and not be super loud. 

The relative peace of the morning was broken when Jun’s SOUL node awoke on the bedside table and took to the air to hover between the two men on the floor. 

“Arashi soldiers. I have determined another potential location for the Rainbow Crystal.” 

Sho had very nearly spilled his coffee, which would have been a horrible waste. 

“Where is it?” he prompted the glowing orb when his heart had calmed somewhat. 

“It is conceivable that a necklace, currently in the possession of the university’s professor of ceramics, is the Rainbow Crystal. You must proceed directly to her location. The necklace must be investigated.” 

“What, go now?” Sho was asking at the same time that Jun was asking, “The university has a professor of _ceramics_?” 

“Correct. Now.” she chimed calmly. 

Jun wanted to ask her exactly how she discovered this information, because the last few times they thought they found the crystal it didn’t exactly work out that great and they almost died, but he bit his tongue. That was mostly the hangover talking anyway. 

Instead, he sighed. 

“Ohno-san isn’t going to be able to come,” he informed her. He heard a muffled attempt at a protest from the bed and Jun cut in immediately with a firmer tone. “It will just be me and Sho-kun.” 

“That is acceptable.” was SOUL’s response. 

Sho protested tiredly into the last of his coffee while Jun hurried to get dressed. When he was ready, Sho did too. 

\--- 

“Can I get you anything before we go? Maybe you should try to shower…” Jun prompted the Ohno-shaped lump on his bed. 

“Moving is not good,” Ohno muffled in explanation. “I think I should just stay here. For a little. Or all day.” 

“Maybe you should just get it out,” Sho volunteered. 

Jun shushed him with a wave. “Well call me if you need anything. If we’re not in the middle of fighting a Monster, I’ll figure it out.” 

“Seriously,” Sho was still saying. “It works.” 

Under the blanket, Ohno groaned weakly, and Jun sighed. 

“You’re not helping,” he leveled at Sho. 

Sho shrugged at him. “I’m trying to.” 

“Matsumoto-san, Sakurai-san.” SOUL was getting impatient. They could not hear it in her voice, but Jun could still tell. 

“We’ll be back,” Jun promised, giving the lump under his blankets a gentle pat before he was pushing Sho toward the door. 

“Feel better, Satoshi-kun~” Sho intoned quietly as they slipped out of Jun’s apartment. 

\--- 

It was a surprisingly chilly day. Jun shivered and hid in his scarf and tried not to wish too hard they were back at his apartment with blankets and pajamas and coffee. They were walking toward the train that would take them the quickest route to the university campus. 

“So.” said Sho. 

Jun looked at him, expecting Sho to go on, but what he got instead was an expectant look in return. “So… what?” Jun tried. 

Shoving his hands into the pockets of the hoodie he borrowed from Jun, Sho made a pained sort of expression. Jun waited for him to elaborate. 

“You guys…” Sho seemed to be implying something. 

“What?” Jun asked, not following. Until he did. 

Sho was asking him what happened last night in the vaguest possible way. 

“Nothing happened, you idiot.” 

He was not sure, but Jun thought he might have seen the faintest flicker of relief in Sho’s eyes but then Sho was looking away. “Are you sure?” 

“I’m completely sure.” 

He didn’t know why Sho was suddenly smirking at him like that but at the very least he appeared to be out of questions because he didn’t press Jun any further. 

“…I kissed his nose,” Jun admitted after they had been walking quietly for a little while longer. “Accidentally.” 

“Accidental kiss?” Sho was laughing at him. Jun shoved him a bit cheerfully and told him to shut up. 

He had to wonder again at why things needed to be so complicated, though he only vaguely recalled saying as much to Ohno as they were falling asleep. 

Jun was grateful when Sho changed the subject. 

“I hope we’re not walking into some kind of horrible Monster fight.” 

“Don’t joke about that.” Jun was feeling far too rough himself to want to deal with any strenuous activity, but knowing their luck… 

\--- 

After surveying some of the bulletin boards on the university campus, Sho and Jun discovered luckily that the ceramics professor offered classes for non-university students. That was handy. 

They would need to find the office on the notice, and they could register there. Not that Jun imagined they would actually manage to take the class, but he thought he probably would have enjoyed it if they did. 

As the two men crossed the campus Jun felt a certain now-familiar uneasiness, but it was vague and aimless just then so there wasn’t much he could do with the feeling except stay on his guard. Sho seemed to straighten a bit beside him, somewhat more alert, and Jun guessed he probably felt it too. 

They did not know that they were being watched. 

\--- 

Rei watched them from the roof of a low campus building nearby, unnoticed, a lazy sort of loathing in her gaze. 

Just behind her, Rei’s newest Monster waited in all its candy-colored glory for the opportunity to serve its master. 

“Go to the woman,” she ordered it solemnly. “If the crystal is real… bring it to me immediately.” 

The Monster made a discordant, inhuman, metallic sound that did not suit its cheerful coloring at all. 

Rei carefully hid her wince. This one was noisy. How annoying. 

\--- 

Once they registered for the ceramics class, and were given guest passes, Sho paused to pull Jun aside, away from the high-traffic corridor they were in. 

“I’ve got a really bad feeling… Like a Monster-bad feeling.” 

Jun cursed quietly, though he had been feeling it too, tugging at the peripherals of his awareness. He just didn’t want it to be true. 

“Why did we drink so much?” he whined at Sho. 

“We’ll be ok... ” Sho sounded like he was trying to be encouraging, and Jun gave him credit for trying. “We should probably split up and look around, though, this place is huge and the Monster could be anywhere. I’ll take the eastern side first, and you take the western side. You have SOUL?” 

Jun nodded, and patted his jacket pocket where the orb rested. It was, oddly, kind of adorable how Sho just took charge of the situation. Jun wasn’t going to argue when he trusted Sho’s intuition on Monsters far more than his own. 

“Don’t be reckless,” Jun ordered as they parted ways, if only to give himself the same advice. “And don’t die.” 

Sho snorted at him in farewell, and disappeared down the crowded hallway. 

\--- 

Wandering the campus, Jun peeked into a few classrooms and a few art studios, but he didn't see or feel anything strongly enough to suspect a Monster, yet. 

As he wandered down an empty corridor, Jun noticed a small rectangle abandoned at his feet and when he picked it up, discovered that it was another guest badge. A name was written on it neatly beneath a layer of lamination. 

_Inoue_

“That’s mine.” 

Jun looked up and heaved a long-suffering sigh. 

It was the bad-day lady. Jun was developing a dreadfully annoying habit of running into her. Apparently, her name was Inoue. Jun thought that was a bit vague, since it was a pretty common surname. 

“You again?” he greeted somewhat lazily, still peering down at the name. 

“I should be saying that,” she shot back at him, and Jun could hear she was as annoyed to see him as he was to see her. 

Something about her was really _super_ irritating, though Jun could not quite determine what it was. 

“Your badge is weird,” he said impassively, mostly just venting at this point. 

“Are you planning to steal it?” she demanded, sounding awfully suspicious of him. 

“Why would I want it?” 

“Then give it back,” she said, and did not wait for him to, but rather snatched it right out of his fingers. Her eyes stayed narrowed on him, and Jun realized after a moment that she was trying to read the name on his own tag. Jun flipped it over immediately. 

“Don’t be creepy. And no one wants your guest pass.” 

Rather than respond, she huffed at him impatiently and stormed off the way Jun had come. 

_What is her problem?_

But he didn’t have time to figure it out right now, there was a Monster to find. 

\--- 

Ohno was very determined. 

He still felt a tad nauseous, and his head rung constantly with a dull ache but… he was at least upright. The shower helped, and the coffee. The train ride there had been a little torturous but now that he was there, strolling through the university campus, Ohno was glad he forced himself to come. 

For one thing, he was pretty sure there was a Monster somewhere nearby. It was getting a little easier to pick out that uncomfortable feeling that always accompanied their shadowy presence. Ohno even found that if he concentrated, he could _almost_ follow it, though it still felt a bit like navigating with a broken compass. 

He hoped Jun and Sho were okay, but he hadn’t seen them yet. 

Actually, it was strangely quiet in the grassy open common, oddly deserted… Which is why Ohno jumped so high when a woman’s scream rang through the air. 

_Where?_ He spun around, saw nothing, looked up, and then he saw it. The Monster, at least one story above him on a glass-railed crosswalk. 

Ohno’s first thought when he looked at it was _lollipop_ , swirls and stripes of orange and purple and red and white. Except this looked like a giant, strong, _angry_ lollipop, with wide hard shoulders and a huge round face with no features at all, only the center of a colored swirl where its face should have been. 

It was making some truly horrible, loud metallic-like noises that reminded Ohno faintly of the sound of an extremely tightly wound spring, and it was manhandling a woman in a pink pantsuit. 

_How do I get up there?_

Ohno looked wildly for stairs, and in the short time he did, the creature yanked at something around the woman’s neck hard and she screamed again. 

He didn’t have any more time to look. If he couldn’t find a way up, Ohno would just have to draw it down to him. 

He went for his bracelet, took a deep breath, and steeled himself for the spinning as he initiated his transformation with the usual aplomb that came with not really being in control of his own actions. Although, now that he knew what was coming, the whole thing felt much… smoother. 

He just needed to get through the clothes part, then the spinning would stop. 

Ohno found the light sparkle-splash of water around him surprisingly refreshing paired with the swirling blue wind that enveloped him. It actually was not as bad as he expected it to be. Though he was not particularly thrilled about having to wear these boots when he felt this awful. 

_Oh well. Can’t be helped._

“In the name of Arashi, I will punish you~” 

The lollipop creature took his bait, and it was coming at him fast, flipping down from the suspended crosswalk far too easily from that great of a height. 

It wasn’t safe… to fight it here, he needed to move. To his left, Ohno could see a small grove of trees toward the perimeter of the university campus. 

“This way,” he called lightly, trying to keep it following him. 

Ohno found himself suddenly getting far more air-time than he expected as he did an astonishing number of forward handsprings and cartwheels in the direction of the trees in a blur of blue and white and legs. 

The Monster appeared determined to follow him, so his plan was working. 

Ohno couldn’t help but be a bit proud of himself for dealing with this whole situation so well. Even as hungover as he was the adrenaline was overruling everything else, right alongside that tingle that always spread through him when the fizzy magic converted them into soldiers. It may have been only a temporary energy, but he was going to use it. 

Ohno planted himself to attack but before he could, the thing let out a series of grating sounds and… jumped? 

No. Vanished? _Where did it go._

It popped up behind him, but when Ohno whirled to swing at it, the Monster disappeared again, and popped back into view a few meters away. 

How was he supposed to hit it if it wouldn’t stand still? He could feel his headache returning, and Ohno tried to ignore it because now the thing was circling him, popping in and out of existence from one side to the other until Ohno felt faint, and a little annoyed. 

It took rather a lot for Ohno to get annoyed but this thing was testing his patience. 

He could feel his weary mind protesting trying to keep up even just _watching_ the thing, let alone fighting it, and his eyes couldn’t follow it, and then… Ohno spun all the way around. 

The clearing appeared empty, and quiet, but he could still feel the thing there. It was somewhere close, and if Ohno shut his eyes against the throbbing in his head, he could almost… hear it. Where _…_

_…there._

Ohno sprung fast, propelling himself into another flip that swung gracefully sideways and connected his boot hard into the back of the Monster’s head. He felt the impact, and prayed it did some kind of damage because he didn’t have much left in him to fight. The coffee and Jun’s warm bed felt a million miles away to Ohno just then. 

He needed to get through this. 

When he bounced to his feet, Ohno’s microphone was ready and pointing right at lollipop-san. 

_You’re not getting away now!_

Except it did. Before the roll of Ohno’s waves even got off the ground (or wherever they came from) it was gone. 

When it reappeared, the shiny lollipop creature sent some kind of flashing wave of sharp energy toward him that Ohno only just managed to tumble away from. His headache was so much worse now, and he could feel it drilling at his temples unrelentingly but he tried to ignore it a little longer. 

He couldn’t though. The wave of dizziness hit him again. Ohno found himself slumping against a nearby tree to keep upright. 

The Monster swiftly took advantage of his collapse, and Ohno willed his body to move but it wasn’t listening, and he could hear the sound of that metal whine of the Monster getting closer. 

Another energy ball rushed past him, only just clearing his head. 

_Well, it was nice while it lasted_ , his brain provided, sure he would get hit next. 

But the energy didn’t hit him, it hit the trunk of the tree and ricocheted wildly off-course and hit a branch high over their heads- 

-then the branch fell on Ohno. 

_Shit, seriously!?_ At least if he was gonna die let it be the evil lollipop Monster that killed him not a extraneous tree branch. 

It didn’t kill him though. What it did do was pin his legs to the ground, and even if Ohno wasn’t capable of getting up and walking anyway, at least he could’ve _crawled_ away. But not now. Now, he was trapped. 

The Monster was approaching him. Ohno struggled futilely to get his legs free. 

_SOUL, where’s SOUL._

As if she sensed his panic, SOUL was suddenly there. 

“Do you require my assistance, Ohno-san.” 

Ohno wanted to respond but his head was screaming at him and the lollipop-thing just morphed its arm into a giant stick and it was coming at him with its large, colorful pole. 

Just as Ohno was giving up all hope, the sound of his own name struck him, and it wasn’t coming from the Monster. 

“Satoshi-kun!” That was Jun. 

Ohno was pretty sure his relief was written all over his face. 

He looked automatically toward Jun’s voice in time to see Sho and Jun (in full soldier attire, he noted) race into the grove, and place themselves both squarely between Ohno and lollipop-san. 

“I am really _really_ glad to see you guys,” he said a bit hazily. 

\--- 

“Now we have to punish you!” Jun was yelling. 

For the briefest of moments, Sho thought Jun was talking to Ohno. But right, no, obviously he meant the… what the fuck was that thing exactly? 

Sho didn’t even really want to know. He probably didn’t need to know, but it was wielding what looked like a massive stick of orange candy at them, and Sho didn’t particularly like the look of it. 

Beside him, Jun’s microphone was already exploding with light. 

_Why’s he gotta rush ahead of me…_

Sho wasn’t going to let Jun get too far ahead, and he was actually getting… marginally better at timing the burst of flame from his microphone? 

Honestly though, Sho thought it was rather a miracle that he still possessed his eyebrows and all of his hair. Though he was late out of the gate, Sho’s flames slammed into the candy-thing just a split second after Jun’s cool rays of light, and the Monster did not stand a chance. 

They didn’t even get to sing for it. 

Sho watched it explode abruptly with a loud _pop_ and splatter them all with sticky candy goo. 

_Gross_ .Sho flicked a globule off his shoulder. 

He was a little distracted by the Monster explosion, and he missed the crystal pendant go flying into the air as the creature dispersed itself all over them and the ground and the grove of trees around them. __

What he _did_ notice was the ripple of a cape as Tuxedo Mao came darting out of a shrub and caught the necklace out of the air. 

“Was she in there the whole time?” Sho asked whoever was listening. 

\--- 

Jun looked from Tuxedo Mao, back to Sho, and shrugged. “Who knows.” 

“This isn’t the Rainbow Crystal _either_ ,” she sounded genuinely disappointed. 

Tuxedo Mao did not give Jun any kind of warning before she flung the pendant at him, though he sort of automatically reached to snatch it from the air when it sailed at him. Then she was running off again. 

As per usual, Jun was a little speechless at the general oddity that was Tuxedo Mao but he had some other priorities just at the moment. 

Like Ohno trapped under a tree, but when he looked back, Sho had already gotten there, and was carefully helping Ohno to his feet. 

“You alright?” Sho was asking, and Jun frowned slightly at the weird little tug in his chest when Ohno appeared to actually need Sho’s support to stand. 

Ohno looked… really pale, and a little out of it, but not injured, and not bleeding, so Jun supposed it could be much worse, but he was still worried. And really… frustrated. 

“What are you doing here? Why didn’t you call? We would have helped you!” 

He might be overreacting, but he didn’t think Ohno should have tried to take on the Monster, _alone_ , and hungover. It was just a bad idea. 

They were all lucky that Sho was able to finally pick up the Monster’s trail, Ohno especially. 

Jun was already at Ohno’s other side, brushing at the grass stains on Ohno’s skirt until he couldn’t avoid looking at him anymore. 

“Jun…” Ohno looked kind of embarrassed. 

Jun felt bad for yelling. “Sorry,” he sighed. “I’m glad you’re okay.” 

He definitely felt a weird little flutter when Ohno said his name like that, when the night before, Ohno said the same thing, and Jun was far too drunk to really appreciate it. He had also somewhat assumed it was the alcohol talking. _Guess not._

Ohno was smiling at him, and Jun didn’t know why. Although, Jun found that he didn’t actually need to know why because his heart was way ahead of his head on this one. So he just kissed Ohno instead. 

He didn’t miss this time. 

Jun’s bow bumped into Ohno’s, and Ohno’s blue hair was in Jun’s face, and they were both rather sticky with candy goo, but Ohno kissed him back for the several seconds it took for Jun’s brain to catch up to his body, and then it was over. 

_I didn’t think that through._

Sho was staring at them. He looked a lot more knowing than surprised though and Jun believed that was really unfair and a little irritating, but… Ohno was blinking at him in a stunned sort of way and Jun could feel his cheeks getting incredibly warm all of a sudden. 

“Sorry,” Jun apologized again, not quite able to meet anyone’s eye just at the moment. He really had not meant to do that. 

He was also really glad that he did. 

“You are super red,” Ohno pointed out. 

“Are we going to talk about what just happened?” Sho asked, and Jun wasn’t sure if he meant the exploding Monster or the kissing but Sho sounded annoyingly amused. 

When Jun tried to glare at him, Sho only laughed, and Jun had been hearing Ohno quietly snickering for a bit now, though he did notice that Ohno’s cheeks were pretty pink too... 

Pinker than the rest of him, which still looked to Jun somewhat worryingly pale. 

“No,” Jun answered Sho. _Not yet._ He couldn’t help frowning lightly at Ohno who looked at him now with incredibly tired eyes. “SOUL?” 

“Yes, Matsumoto-san.” 

“Can you change us back and… verify this isn’t the Rainbow Crystal.” 

There was the customary blinding burst of light and then they were all suddenly far more comfortable and also no longer splattered with smears of candy. That was a relief. 

“It is not the Rainbow Crystal,” SOUL confirmed. 

“Yeah.” Jun said flatly, not really surprised. 

Between them, Ohno swayed a little unsteadily and Jun immediately coiled an arm around Ohno’s waist and tried to help Sho hold him up. “We should get you back to bed.” 

Sho snickered, and Jun wanted to thwap him, but didn’t have a free hand. 

\--- 

“I feel way better than earlier,” Ohno tried to reason, which was true, in that he could now move without intense discomfort. His head was still killing him though and he was still pretty dizzy. 

He let Sho and Jun walk him toward the train station, most of the streets they crossed passing in a blur. 

A part of Ohno, a rather huge part of him, wanted to replay the way Jun just kissed him out of the blue like that, but the pain in his head wasn’t really cooperating with any of that. Ohno remembered now, Jun’s words from last night, that at the time, filled him with so much uncertainty. 

_“- ’don’t have to make it so complicated.”_

Ohno decided that was good advice when you were exhausted and dehydrated. 

They passed the occasional stranger and drew a few odd looks but they were all too worn out to care. None of them questioned returning to Jun’s as a group. When they got back, Sho and Jun brewed more coffee, but Ohno was given water and aspirin, wrapped in blankets, and instructed to sleep until he felt better. 

Ohno did not protest. 

\--- 

Epilogue 

When Ohno had been snoring for a good half hour, Jun looked up from his phone in surprise when he noticed Sho leaning in his general direction. Jun’s eyes were a little wide when Sho’s lips only just ghosted over his cheek. 

_What have I started,_ drifted aimlessly through his head as Sho was standing, and talking, and Jun tried not to look flustered. 

“I have to get back to the shrine.” 

“Oh.” Jun stared up at Sho for a speechless moment before he forced his brain into gear. “I’ll tell Oh-chan you said bye.” 

“Thanks.” 

Jun was a little shocked when Sho ruffled his hair (like the kiss thing wasn’t enough) and he might have objected but Sho was already walking out the door. 

“See ya,” he sighed at his own ceiling, flopping back into the pillows that were still scattered all over his floor while Ohno slept soundly on. 

Really though, _what was happening in his life_. 

Jun didn’t think any of it could ever be called normal, but then he didn’t particularly mind it all that much either. 

\--- 

That night, on a dark and winding city street, a man was wandering a well-familiar path home from the bar, his sneakers occasionally scuffing the pavement as he strolled. 

Humming to himself, he tried to ignore the faint rumble in the air and flickers of light in the dark clouds gathering in the sky above him. Hopefully, he could make it home before the sky opened up on him, because Aiba really didn’t want to get all wet. 

The storm had other plans. 


	6. Act Six: Part One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oops there’s a lot more kissing in this one.
> 
> Jun is fabulous, but when isn’t he. More kissing. 
> 
> A wild Aiba has appeared! Shopping happens. 
> 
> Cakes.
> 
> Sakumoto is a thing. …Kissing. 
> 
> Are you sensing a pattern here?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I did a thing on my Dreamwidth [here](https://itsabrandnewworld.dreamwidth.org/2641.html) for anyone who is interested.  
> It’s a YouTube playlist plus a list of relevant lyrics I’ve been using for some inspiration for this fic (besides Arashi songs of course).

Act Six: Part One

"Oh, wow." 

Jun was watching something, his gaze leveled intently over the top edge of his sunglasses. 

Sho pulled himself away from the words in his book, and attempted to follow his gaze, but he couldn't see what Jun thought was so spectacular. 

"What's wow?" he pressed. 

It was a cool day in the park, yet sunny still. 

Warmth remained, but only in the rare patches of light where the sun lingered. Today, the sun lingered on the grassy hill they were occupying. From time to time, a fitful breeze whirled and fluttered at the corners of the blanket Sho had brought down from the shrine for them. 

"That guy is _seriously_ good looking," Jun intoned. 

Lounging on his other side, idly pondering the sky, Ohno popped up at Jun's declaration. 

"Who?" 

Jun perched his sunglasses atop his head and nodded in the direction of the park's basketball court, slightly to the left of where Sho was looking. "That dude killing it at basketball." 

For a moment, all three of them watched the man dunk several shots before any of them looked away. 

"He's okay." Sho shrugged and went back to his book. He thought all three of them were far better looking. 

"He seems really good at basketball," Ohno conceded after watching for a time. 

" _Hnnn~_ " 

It vaguely sounded like Jun was purring when he hummed like that. Sho was pretty sure Jun didn't realize he was doing it out loud. 

"I think you're drooling." 

"Oi." Unamused, or very good at pretending, Jun reached back to pinch him in retaliation and Sho tried to roll away, though it appeared his efforts were futile. 

"Ouch…" he rubbed at his cheek a bit petulantly, but Jun was grinning at him now. 

Ohno had been squinting at the basketball court for quite some time. Sho was starting to think he was drooling at the dude too, but then Ohno brightened abruptly. 

"Ah! That's where." 

"What?" Jun and Sho answered at virtually the same time. 

"I know that guy. No- well, not _know_ him but, he went to school with my sister. His name… what was it? Tako… something?" 

Sho snorted. "That can't be right." 

Jun was no longer ogling the basketball dude and was now watching Ohno with obvious affection. 

Sho attempted to ignore the small part of himself that was bothered over it, for the time being. 

"Takeru-kun!" Ohno remembered the name. "…but I don't think she liked him much." 

"I didn't even know you _had_ a sister," Sho pointed out. There were a lot of things he didn't know yet, much of it lost between all of the danger and the… flirting. 

Sho sometimes worried that he might always be playing catch-up with both of them, since Ohno and Jun were friends so long, even before all of this chaos. 

"Yep." Ohno nodded, and that appeared all he was prepared to offer about her. 

Truthfully, Sho wasn't sure how comfortable he was with the idea of sharing _his_ whole family history yet either. 

Bothered or not by the state of their current social circumstances, Sho still found himself undeniably charmed watching Ohno lay back again and continue his examination of the sky. _Wonder what he sees up there?_

Finally giving up on getting any further in his book, Sho dropped it onto the blanket beside him, right by Jun's jean-covered ass on the blanket beside him. Sho had been mostly trying to ignore it but he had obviously just failed again. 

In an attempt to derail his thought process, Sho tried to picture Ohno's sister. He just kept visualizing images of Ohno in his soldier attire and chuckling a little under his breath. 

Perhaps the image wasn't too far off, since Sho did sort of notice recently that Ohno made a completely beautiful lady. On reflection though, he didn't think his own sister looked anything like him when he was dressed up so… maybe not. 

It was still interesting to think about. 

\--- 

Gazing up at a cloudless, too blue sky with a tiny and far away smile, Ohno's mind was wandering away again. It took him back to the previous Sunday evening… 

… (as it did rather a lot lately) … 

… lost in his own memories... 

\--- 

_Ohno's Interlude_

The sky beyond the only window in Jun's apartment was dusky and dimly purple when Ohno finally surfaced from his very deep sleep after their chaotic battle with lollipop-san. 

He found he was still in Jun's bed, wrapped in too many layers of excessively warm blankets. Even so, he felt a million times better than before. The whole morning had been pretty awful, and the afternoon decidedly worse. 

He'd been a bit stupid about the whole venture, if Ohno were being completely honest with himself. 

Mercifully at least, his headache was long gone. 

Sitting up, Ohno attempted to extract himself from the tangle of blankets, pretty unsuccessfully, and spotted a familiar form sprawled on another nest of blankets on the floor. 

Jun was reading a magazine. 

Ohno coughed quietly, but Jun seemed really absorbed in whatever he was reading because he didn't look up. 

"Jun?" he attempted again hoarsely. 

When Jun looked up from his pages, Ohno was promptly far too captivated by Jun's smile. 

"You're awake." Jun seemed to be barely containing his laughter. 

Ohno's brow wrinkled faintly in confusion. "What's funny?" 

He watched Jun carefully shut his magazine and set it aside before he was crawling up onto the bed to join him. Jun was still looking at him like he was trying not to laugh. Ohno blinked at him bewildered, until Jun started fussing at his hair. 

"Your hair is seriously sticking up everywhere." 

"O-oh," Ohno laughed a bit, perhaps a little self-consciously, and let Jun continue… whatever he was doing. 

He was kind of untangling Ohno's hair with his fingers and at the moment Ohno really did not mind it at all. It honestly felt pretty nice, but- 

"Sorry," he felt like he needed to add, mostly apologizing on behalf of his hair, for whatever sense that made to his sleepy brain. 

Jun halted his untangling. "Don't apologize. It's cute." Jun's tone seemed to broadcast rather firmly, _and don't argue with me about it._

"Okay…" Ohno was still watching Jun a little cautiously. 

He wanted to ask Jun things, so many things, and Ohno didn't know where to start. He didn't know if he could even get the words out of his head without them sounding incredibly stupid, though he knew he needed to try. 

Ohno was worried if he didn't say this now, he never would. 

"Can we talk about today?" His nerves were buzzing through him, and Ohno still felt a bit groggy, and together the two were disorienting. 

"Which part of today exactly, the part with the ostentatious exploding candy-Monster, or the part where we kissed?" Jun sounded indolently playful. 

Then again, Ohno thought he knew Jun, well enough to tell that he was maybe using the humor to deflect from his own nerves. He was also being kind enough to leave out the part of today where Ohno screwed up, got a bit irrational, and tried to take on a Monster all by himself. 

Ohno thought that was nice of him. 

Jun was watching him rather closely, and with remarkable sincerity… 

…if not a small amount of impatience. 

_Oh, right._ Jun was still waiting for him to answer and watching him expectantly in a way that momentarily left Ohno a little tongue-tied. _Words…_

"The kiss…part," he finally stumbled it out. "I guess I just… was wondering, if you meant it." 

It was a hard question to ask so bluntly. 

Jun looked honestly startled, then he was frowning at his hands. He seemed to be considering his answer seriously while Ohno's heart leapt and he tried not to show it. 

"No," Jun said softly after a minute. 

Probably, Ohno should have been prepared for that answer, he just really wasn't. It was his turn to look surprised (perhaps even a bit hurt), but when Jun actually looked at him- 

"Wait, no- I don't mean _no_ , I meant- " 

_Wow, he is as nervous as I am,_ Ohno mused. 

The whole conversation felt incredibly intimidating. Probably, it was for both of them. 

Watching Jun run a hand impatiently through his messy black hair, Ohno's heart still felt a touch unsteady. He made a vague attempt to smile reassuringly for Jun to continue. 

"I didn't _intend_ to kiss you," Jun corrected himself quietly, and cautiously he looked to Ohno again. "I didn't plan it and my timing was probably super terrible… 

…but I did _want_ to kiss you. So I just did." 

_Oh_ . 

Ohno considered what that might mean with surprising calm. Jun had not entirely answered his question, but Ohno could see that he was trying to be honest. 

After some consideration of a smudge on Jun's wall, he found his right words again. 

"Do you still want to kiss me?" Ohno hesitated to look at Jun, but he did it anyhow. 

Jun appeared to be genuinely laughing at him. 

"Ohno-sensei, is that an invitation?" 

There was a mischievous glint hiding in Jun's gaze, like he knew exactly what effect calling him that would have. Ohno honestly felt he liked it all a little too much. Even if Jun was only teasing, he said that so… and it… uhm. 

His cheeks were heating up. 

"I mean, if you want to. I wo- _mmph-_ " 

Ohno didn't know what he expected, but it wasn't Jun all but knocking him over with their second kiss. _He is really sudden about this._

Which, actually, Ohno found he didn't mind too terribly much. 

In point of fact, it was wonderful, because Jun was really, _very_ talented with the kissing. 

Ohno tried to hide the hitch in his breathing when Jun locked their lips together and started nipping lightly. His eyes went a little crossed trying to follow Jun, so he closed them. His back pushed up against the wall beside the bed with a soft _thump_ and it was an awkward angle, but Ohno really didn't care. 

Yet before he could even really absorb what Jun's mouth felt like on his own or what kissing him tasted like ( _hints of coffee…_ ), Jun was pulling back. 

Ohno blinked at him slowly but Jun was still very close. Their lips kept bumpering faintly up against each other, chasing more, and they did not really seem inclined to disengage. 

"Okay?" Jun checked quietly. Even as close as they were, and as excited as he sounded, Ohno could still see the reflecting question in Jun's gaze. 

Because he didn't trust his voice to work, Ohno nodded. When Jun started kissing him again, and just a little deeper, Ohno's voice appeared to work just fine. 

Jun's voice was also working, they soon discovered. 

\--- 

His cheeks felt awfully warm. 

Shifting a bit, Ohno glanced over at the other two men occupying the blanket with him, but both were now back to watching the basketball court. 

Ohno felt a little embarrassed for getting caught up in his head again, but he didn't think he was the only one. A couple of times this week when they were talking to SOUL at headquarters or having lunch, Jun would get this far away look on his face and zone out a little bit, and when he snapped out of it his cheeks were often tellingly pink. 

They were probably ridiculously silly, but Ohno could not find himself caring all that terribly much. Because the kissing was really, truly awesome kissing… 

Maybe he needed to stop thinking about this now. 

"You guys are being kinda creepy," Ohno pointed out instead, since Sho and Jun were still staring. 

"I don't even think he's that hot," Sho pointed out, inclining back on his elbows to smirk at him, and sounding, Ohno thought, a tad defensive. 

"Why are you staring, then?" Ohno laughed at him. 

"I don't know…" Sho's face went pensive, looking back toward the court with a slight pout that he seemed completely unaware of. "I've got a weird feeling." 

"Uh-oh," said Jun peering back at them. "That's never good." 

Ohno's gaze flickered between them. "Sho-kun, do you think… Monster?" 

"I dunno," Sho mumbled quietly. "Hard to say." 

"Guess we'll have to keep a close eye on him…" Jun failed completely at making the task sound like a terrible burden. Ohno snickered at him. 

It appeared they were not the only fans of Takeru-kun. 

A crowd of giggling young girls had gathered not too far from the basketball court. They were all watching Takeru play, almost as shamelessly as Jun had been. 

Ohno recognized a few of the girls from the café, from the day when he and Jun first heard the tale of the cursed priest. The cursed priest who, he realized with some amusement, was now relaxing beside them. 

That day seemed so far away now. 

So much was happening to them at such a rapid pace, it sometimes felt to him like he would never be able to keep up. At the very least, Ohno no longer felt the same level of nervous concern that had been plaguing him lately over Sho's introduction to their group. 

For the time being, it appeared things between them were settling into a comfortable equilibrium. 

He was also perhaps riding a bit on cloud nine with Jun, so there was that too. 

Reasonably, it was _all_ a lot to take in, but Ohno felt a bit less overwhelmed when he acknowledged that at least he wasn't dealing with it alone. 

\--- 

As it was in fact only his lunch break, Ohno eventually had to wander off back to school and finish his day of teaching. Jun did not let him go without an affectionate prod to Ohno's cheek, who waved him off, laughing. 

He watched the familiar figure wandering away, fairly oblivious to the infatuated smirk on his own face. 

"You've got it pretty bad." 

Jun had the presence of mind to look apologetically at Sho. 

"Sorry, things, um… got interesting," was the only way he could think to explain it. 

"You wanna talk about it?" Sho sounded amused, and genuinely curious. He also sounded a bit uncertain to Jun's ears, as if Sho wasn't sure he should be asking, or if he even really wanted to know the answer. 

Jun hadn't meant to rush so far ahead with Ohno, but it happened. He couldn't take it back now, and he didn't actually want to. In ways, it felt completely inevitable. 

He chose his words carefully. The topic of Ohno seemed to remain, perceptibly, a delicate subject between them, the last thing Jun wanted to do now was accidentally be a dick. 

"He woke up that night you left, we talked… then we kissed for maybe an hour, and then he had to go home and feed his fish." 

Jun tried to sound cool, unbothered, but his illusion of seriousness somewhat crumbled when he looked at Sho, and Sho was laughing at him. 

"Why is this entertaining to you," Jun complained rather wryly. That only made Sho laugh more. 

"I was mostly laughing at the fish part," Sho admitted, still chuckling a bit, though he trailed off into silence after a moment. 

He seemed to be carefully considering something. He was biting somewhat unthinkingly at the same lips that Jun could remember touching at the slumber party not so long ago... 

Jun tried not to stare. 

"What is it?" he asked instead, because he got the feeling Sho wanted to say something important. 

"Well..." 

When Sho hesitated and sat up, Jun shifted back on the blanket enough that they were both a bit more level, properly side by side. 

"…what if I'm jealous now?" Sho kind of mumbled. 

Jun froze slightly. There was a hint of teasing in Sho's voice, but beneath that, he also sounded all too serious. 

He sounded like he expected an answer. 

_Oh hell._ Jun perhaps suspected this was coming, but he knew now that he wanted what Sho said to be true, and that he liked hearing Sho say it. 

Jun wondered idly if something was terribly wrong with him for wanting Sho to be jealous of Ohno. 

He also knew that if he weren't completely truthful with Sho now, as he had been with Ohno already, then he was not really being true to himself either. 

"I told you before, neither one of you has a reason to be jealous." 

It was that straightforward. Jun was sure of it. Though he didn't know if his heart could take too many more of these confessions. He could feel it racing just a little faster than usual. 

When he cast a sidelong look at Sho, the man's face was a mask of contradictory emotions and Jun did not have the slightest clue how to read him. 

He realized in that moment how much easier it was with Ohno, who was so very familiar, and also so very open. The thought did occur to Jun that Ohno would always have been first, no matter who came after. 

He didn't know what he expected Sho to say, but Jun was fairly certain what Sho actually said was nowhere in that vicinity. 

"Does that mean I get to kiss you for an hour too?" 

Sho wasn't quite looking at him, which Jun understood completely because neither one of them was unflustered. 

"I guess …but," Jun began rather slowly. After a moment of hesitation, he tipped sideways and closed the miniscule gap between them, lightly nudging the ball of his shoulder against Sho's. "…not right here at the park. Maybe we should make a date." 

He could feel Sho staring at him, and when their gazes caught, Jun had some trouble looking away again. 

"Okay," Sho squeaked a bit. Jun had never heard his voice do that. 

He was aware he was beaming quite openly but it was hard to reign it in. "Okay," he repeated trying not to sound smug. 

Things with Sho were getting interesting too. 

\--- 

As much as Jun felt like he could sit and talk ( _and whatever_ ) with Sho in the park all afternoon, Sho apparently had things to do back at the shrine, and he was taking his blanket with him. 

Truthfully, Jun knew he should probably be out tracking down new clients, or working on plans for his current ones, and not spending most of his day mooning over the astonishingly attractive men in his life… 

There was also the crystal thing, he should probably think about that too, and the next soldier, whoever that ended up being. 

Given his options, Jun decided the easiest way to finish out his day would be to get some work done. He needed to make a few preparations for the anniversary party that was to be his next scheduled event in a few weeks. The wife had requested an underwater theme, and tiny cakes, and left the rest up to him… for now. There would always be excruciatingly last-minute requests, but there was no helping that. 

All Jun could really do was be as prepared as possible for every eventuality. 

For now, he needed to sort out the cakes. 

\--- 

Only a few blocks from the park, there was a new cake and flower shop downtown. Jun had considered investigating it for some weeks, at least to get a sense of their quality. 

Jun did not really bother with anything that wasn't quality when it came to work. 

DREAM CAKES! 

FLOWERS TOO! 

It was hard to miss the building. The sign out front was painted with swirls of silver on white and pastel text. 

The shop's front display window was filled with an array of cakes and flowers, and colors and patterns. It was rather a lot to take in, and a little extravagant, but Jun found the overall aesthetic was pleasing to the eye. 

When he stepped through the painted white door, Jun was greeted by the pleasant jingling of a bell and a small pathway lined with baskets and potted plants. 

The pathway led him through a small floral archway, and into what revealed itself to be an average sized room _packed_ with innumerable flowers and bouquets. 

It smelled incredible. 

It was only as he moved deeper into the shop that Jun encountered a branch in the path which led to another room, where most of the baked goods were on display. 

It smelled incredible in here too. 

This was also the room where Jun discovered the apparent sole guardian of the shop, behind a bakery counter, sporting a brightly-colored apron. Jun noticed immediately that his smile was somewhat extraordinary. 

"Welcome! How can I help?" 

Momentarily, Jun forgot why he even walked into the shop in the first place. 

"Um." 

_Cakes? You need cakes._

"I need cakes." Probably he could have put that better. 

Maybe Ohno was rubbing off on him in more ways than one. Jun tried to shake himself out of his weird distracted headspace. 

"I'm planning an anniversary party, I was hoping to take a look at what you have," he clarified. 

"I have a lot of cake," shop-guy pointed out with a gesture around the room in which they were currently standing, in case that was not already abundantly obvious. 

Jun wasn't sure, but he thought the man might be laughing at him. There was an undercurrent of vividly obvious mirth hiding in his tone whenever he answered Jun. 

"What kind of cake do you need?" 

_He has nice hair,_ Jun noticed distractedly. 

"Uh. Underwater cake?" 

Jun only registered that he skipped over a crucial part of his description when he received a look of uncertainty from the man behind the counter. In hindsight it did sound completely nonsensical. 

"Wait, no. I mean an underwater _themed_ cake. The party is underwater themed… you know? Under the Sea." 

Jun made a wave sort of motion with his hand, expounding on the idea visually. 

"Oh!! Okay… Yeah, I could- hang on…" Jun watched him disappear through a door behind the counter. He heard a brief clatter that was a bit concerning but then the man was returning to the counter, with a big book. 

"You can look through here if you want to. I did some stuff like that once or twice." 

Reaching to accept the book Jun's gaze caught the nametag pinned crookedly to the man's apron. 

_Aiba,_ Jun quietly mouthed the name as he read. The guy was smiling at him like he knew what Jun was doing, but he didn't mention it. 

Jun realized he was staring again. "… thanks." 

Laying the heavy binder open across the counter, Jun flipped a couple of pages before another pair of hands were suddenly taking over the process. He blinked at the top of Aiba's head as more pages turned. He seemed to know exactly what he was looking for. 

"Here's some… and I know there's more in the middle somewhere. It's not much. Some bubbles and shells and coral and things. I've also done some that look like sushi? But… are cakes, you know? Do you think your wife would like that?" 

"Huh?" Jun was so surprised by the question he didn't know how to answer at first. "My um- I don't…" 

Apparently, something about his face right now was super entertaining, because Aiba was giggling at him. Jun couldn't recall ever hearing a grown man giggle quite like that before. 

"It's not my wife. It's not my anniversary, I'm just the planner," he hurried to explain. 

Pointedly, he did _not_ watch Aiba's reaction to this news, because, as his mind so helpfully put it: _Don't you have your hands full already?_

His attention was drawn back to the book, looking at some of Aiba's indicated work instead. The tiny ocean-colored cakes with tiny edible pearls appeared to be almost exactly what his client was looking for. 

"I think this will work perfect, actually." 

"Okay!" For a moment Jun wasn't sure how to proceed but then Aiba continued. "Oh, you'll need to pick a flavor. I have a few fruity ones that might work… or marshmallow maybe! Or…maybe both? You can choose. How about I…" 

Jun did not comment on how quickly Aiba was talking, not that he had a chance, watching as the aproned man trailed off, vanishing into the back of the shop again. _I thought Satoshi was weird._

"Here!" Aiba dropped a small box on the countertop in front of him. "It's got samples of most of my best ones. Take it home with you!" 

The way he was beaming, Jun got the feeling Aiba enjoyed giving people free samples. 

"I won't turn down free cake," he eventually shrugged, distractedly accepting the box. 

Aiba was laughing again. Jun found the sound at once distracting and exasperating, in ways he could not even begin to explain but- 

Slowly, he could feel himself smiling whether he liked it or not, and he was not actually sure which it was. Usually, he was pretty good at being professional when he needed to be. Jun thought sometimes people were even a bit intimidated by him. At the moment however, Jun found himself struggling to be even remotely intimidating. 

The dude's smile was seriously disarming. 

"I'll… get back to you with the flavors and numbers then, and the date. She's still deciding between two weekends." Jun shrugged a little hopelessly. 

"No problem, take your time, just let me know when you decide, okay? And if there's anything else you need. Oh- and have a good day!" Aiba started waving. "Enjoy the cake!" 

Jun nodded politely, thanking Aiba and backing toward the flower room with his sample box. 

Several steps into the flower room, Jun peeked back over his shoulder curiously. Aiba was still standing there waving at him, like Jun was a great friend that he would not see for a long time. 

With a hesitant wave back, Jun left the shop, still feeling a bit… dazzled. 

\--- 

That night, Jun was home, finally getting some real work done when Ohno called him. 

It did not take Jun long to answer. 

After they talked for a short time, Ohno asked him if he and Sho had done anything interesting after he left. 

Jun decided if he was going to have this conversation with Ohno (which he needed to have) … it should probably be in person. Leveraging all of his considerable charm, Jun managed to talk Ohno into picking up curry on his way. In return, Jun promised to provide dessert. 

He was hoping Ohno could help him sample the cakes and chose one that was appropriately ocean-theme-compatible. 

Jun's kitchen was really more of a cubby than a kitchen, and he rarely had anything worth feeding guests in it that wasn't prepared way in advance. Some days Jun would ponder wistfully that he might find a very rich client who hired him to do all of their parties forever and maybe Jun could afford an apartment with a real kitchen, and a bathroom that had an actual bathtub in it. 

That would be _wonderful_. 

For now, Jun kept his kitchen as neat as he possibly could given the cramped size and distinct lack of shelving. Currently he was standing precariously on the edge of his tiny counter, digging through his top cupboards in search of proper dessert plates. 

He knew they were here _somewhere_ … 

\--- 

Jun was still searching when Ohno arrived, announcing himself uncertainly because at first, he did not see Jun anywhere and there weren't that many places in the tiny apartment for him to hide. 

"In here," he heard Jun call. 

Ohno peered around the corner into the closet-sized room as he was kicking off his shoes and spotted Jun on the counter. It was hard not to smile at the sight of him. 

As Ohno shuffled closer, he found it was also hard not to stare at Jun's bottom when it was right at eye-level like that. 

"Um," said Ohno. 

Jun smirked down at him, and Ohno got the feeling Jun knew exactly what his 'um' was pertaining to. "Everything okay?" 

Puffing out his cheeks ever so slightly in indignation, Ohno held up the bag of take-out he was tasked with acquiring. 

"I brought food." 

"Well why didn't you say so." Jun was still smirking at him. Ohno watched him lean carefully sideways to close the cupboard he was searching, apparently giving up on whatever it was for now. "How very thoughtful of you." 

"Is it thoughtful if you asked me to?" Ohno pointed out with a quiet laugh. 

When Jun turned around, he looked like he was ready to just jump down. Ohno very nearly dropped their curry in his rush to put it down and give Jun a hand, or two. 

Which Jun accepted, grinning rather unrepentantly down at him as he took both Ohno's offered hands and hopped down to join him on level ground. 

"It's still completely thoughtful," Jun argued. 

Quite abruptly, they were kissing again. 

Ohno forgot what they were even talking about. 

He dragged Jun a little closer, feeling more than hearing the low hum Jun purred in reply. It reverberated on his lips, but then Ohno was chuckling into the kiss. 

"…What?" Jun questioned, though he seemed reluctant to break away. He sounded a little frustrated. 

"Nothing…" Ohno trailed off but endeavored to explain properly. "Just tickles when you… do that hum thingy." 

His cheeks flushed embarrassingly hot when Jun smirked at him wickedly like that and if the way Jun was staring at his lips was any indication, Ohno thought he was planning to try it again. 

But then Jun kissed Ohno's cheek instead and gathered up the abandoned take-out bag, and then he was pulling them out of the tiny kitchen. 

"Come on, food. Let's talk. Tell me all about your day." 

So they did. 

\--- 

Mutually unwinding on his apartment floor, Jun let Ohno talk himself out about his students and his fish and his day over curry. 

As they slowly ran out of things to discuss, and slowly ran out of curry, Jun began to realize he couldn't really put the conversation off much longer. 

Well… maybe just a bit longer. 

"Dessert?" Jun offered. He decided they didn't need plates, and just returned to Ohno with the box of cakes and a pair of spoons. 

"What is it?" Ohno looked excited. Jun recalled he was incredibly fond of sweets. 

"I stopped at that new bakery today, the one with the flowers…" 

Jun explained about his client, and the party, and the theme, and the cakes he was looking for, and Ohno followed him with nods, already peeking into the box. 

What it revealed was a neat layer of tiny un-frosted cakes in several colors (and likely flavors) and another row of small cups with various frostings. 

"Ah… so these are cake samples?" Ohno questioned. 

"Basically," Jun answered, peering down into the box as well. "I need to decide on flavor so, don't be shy with your opinion… 

…The cake guy was pretty interesting." 

"Oh?" Ohno said, already trying to deposit blue frosting onto a green-colored cake with one of the spoons. 

He was fumbling with it a bit, trying to spread it around with varying degrees of success. Jun probably should have helped him out with that, but it was charming to watch Ohno give it his all. 

He kind of forgot about the cake guy. He let Ohno actually taste the cake, but then Jun was trying to kiss a spot of frosting off of Ohno's lips. 

Ohno tried to kiss him back. Jun only just barely resisted introducing his tongue further into the situation because… 

Even if they wanted to get distracted they couldn't, since Jun really needed to talk to Ohno about… things with Sho. 

He found the willpower to break the kiss, but his expression must have revealed some of his apprehension over the conversation. Ohno was immediately frowning at him, whatever interesting things Jun had surely just been making him feel seemingly eclipsed. 

"Jun? What's wrong?" 

"Ah… nothing," he started, but then shook his head, because that wasn't true either, entirely. 

How to start. 

Jun kept his hands busy trying to frost a pink cake with a lighter blue frosting very carefully. The focus made it a bit easier for him to gather his thoughts and reign in his feelings. 

"You know how you asked me on the phone what we did after you left?" 

It felt to Jun like it took a great effort for him to actually look at Ohno, but the man was only looking back at him with quiet curiosity. 

"Sure. What about it?" He must have sensed Jun's hesitation, because Jun felt Ohno's frosting-free hand patting his knee supportively. 

That helped. 

"I talked to Sho, about things… with you and me." 

"Okay," Ohno said slowly. He did not look terribly shocked, perhaps a little worried. "What did he say?" 

Jun didn't know if Ohno would understand, but he never _could_ understand if Jun didn't at least attempt to explain it, aloud, shutting down the protests in his mind that he was overcomplicating things. 

This was impossible to avoid, wasn't it? 

Jun realized he was thinking too much, and not talking enough. 

Ohno startled him by getting there first. "I know… you like him too." 

_Ah._ Some of the tension in Jun's heart relaxed, but it still felt squeezed with his own emotions as Ohno went on. 

"More than friends," he continued softly. "I noticed." 

Jun watched him, but if Ohno felt unhappy about any of this, he wasn't showing it. Possibly, they both anticipated this talk was coming. That didn't make Jun any less nervous about what he couldn't see… whatever might be going on inside Ohno's head. 

"He said he was jealous," Jun eventually sighed out. "Of the kissing." 

Hearing Ohno's laugh wash over him was a wave of relief he didn't expect. Funnily, Jun's resulting smile was a bit timid. Timid was not something he was really used to feeling. 

_You care what he thinks now,_ his mind supplied reasonably, though Jun did wish it would shut up. 

"So, are you guys… gonna kiss then?" Ohno asked tentatively. 

It was rather hard for Jun to imagine that he and Sho _wouldn't_ kiss now, given the way Sho was looking at him just before they parted ways. But, he supposed this was the part, for Ohno, he really needed to be clear about. 

He gave Ohno a very fixed look. "Only if you accept it." 

Jun thought he saw Ohno hesitate, but just as quickly it was something new. Ohno now looked almost determined. 

"I trust you… and I trust Sho-kun. We're connected, right? Isn't it… destiny?" 

Jun didn't truly _know_ if it was or not. 

SOUL said it was, though as of yet, she had been rather unspecific as to what their destiny actually entailed. Lately she had been even more absent than usual. Jun supposed if they had no guidelines, did it really hurt to make the rules up as they went? 

"This is destiny," Jun said instead, resolutely not wishing to think on it anymore. He abandoned his box of cakes and kissed the last remnants of frosting from Ohno's lips. 

Ohno hummed. 

This time, Jun was the one who felt the tickling vibration on his lips, and it was his turn to laugh, climbing quickly and unapologetically into Ohno's lap. 

"We can taste the rest later," Jun decided, finally letting himself get a bit distracted. 

Just a bit. 

\--- 

_Rei's Interlude_

_"As expected… the rainbow crystal has been **quite** elusive," Usagi fumed with quiet fury. The delicate train of her powder pink gown trailed across the crystal floor. _

_Rei followed at her heels, her own deep crimson attire glaring in the castle's hazy pink glow._

_"Yes, your majesty," Rei deferred, bowing her head as they crossed the hall. "Nothing will stop me from finding the crystal for you, if it is the last thing I do- "_

_"Indeed," Usagi intoned, with some hint of warning. "And Ami will assist us... She has been so devotedly gathering souls for us... Shall we give her a taste of greater power?"_

_"…isn't she useless?" Rei might have been grumbling._

_"Rei… she is trying to **redeem** herself. Such loyalty is not something to take lightly." _

_Rei did not roll her eyes where her queen could see._

\--- 

_Ami's Interlude_

_In a small dark tower of the same castle, Ami was plotting to herself, rather unquietly._

_"I must please her. I **must** succeed. I cannot allow Rei to get too comfortable at her majesty's side. I cannot fail…" _

_A few of Ami's plans were already in motion._

\--- 

When they finally took the time to taste them all, Ohno enjoyed the cake samples Jun shared with him. He enjoyed them so much, that the following afternoon after school he found himself standing in front of the colorful shopfront those samples originated from. 

He had a plan, and that plan was to acquire some cookies. Or cupcakes. 

For his students. Obviously. 

The door jingled at him merrily when he entered. Ohno was instantly wrapped in the harmony of a myriad of different flower smells all hitting him at once. 

_Whoa._ It was like a symphony in his nose. 

There wasn't much of a choice directionally, so Ohno followed the narrow path through the flowers and into the bakery section of the cheerful shop. 

"Hello?" he called when he saw no one tending the counter, shuffling closer to a large display featuring an array of brightly colored and creatively decorated choices. 

Ohno was very excited to try some. 

"Just a moment!" 

While he waited Ohno looked around a bit more. It wasn't a huge place, but every spare inch of space was being utilized, in some cases to its fullest capacity. 

Ohno thought it had a wonderfully eclectic charm, some part of him itching to draw some of the flowers and cakes on display in a variety of arrangements. It was a little surprising actually, if only because it had been quite longer than Ohno cared to remember since anything managed to inspire him to draw. 

It was something to keep in mind, though at the moment, Ohno was really more concerned with tasting. 

"Hello~ Welcome! How can I help you?" 

A taller man with a kind smile emerged from the back of the bakery, and Ohno returned the smile in kind. 

"Hello… I'm looking for cookies. Or something. For kids." 

"Oh? What kinds of stuff do they like?" 

"All kinds of things. There's at least thirty of them." 

When you combined every class of every grade that Ohno taught, it was likely even more. He spent the most time with the younger classes though, and Ohno sometimes had the tendency to spoil them. 

The man behind the counter stared at him vacantly for a moment before he seemed to put the pieces together. 

Rather swiftly, in point of fact. 

"Ah! Teacher, right? No problem. I have boxes in the back with some of the stuff that's out in the case here, and from the shelves over there." He was waving toward the small alcove near the front window. 

Rather than look that way, Ohno was reading his name tag, recalling suddenly that Jun might have said something last night about the baker being kind of interesting. 

Ohno understood now exactly what he meant. _Aiba…chan?_ It did seem to suit him. 

"Thanks…" He was a little overwhelmed by his choices actually. Ohno didn't know where to begin. 

Instead of panicking, he decided to defer to Aiba, since he was the clear expert here. 

"What do you recommend? What's your favorite?" 

"Oh. _Oh._ You're smart." Aiba was waving a finger at him. "Wait here." 

Ohno honestly felt he didn't have any choice but to wait. 

When Aiba returned, he had a large cake-sized box. When he popped open the lid, the box was full almost to the top with an excess of small, round, but unusual cookies. 

The cookies were unusual because they were sparkling, in a small assortment of colors, each coated fully in what appeared to be… 

"Glitter?" Ohno queried, confused. 

" _Edible_ glitter," Aiba corrected, with a hint of awe that Ohno found funny, coming from the guy who _made_ the cookies. 

They were extremely interesting cookies, Ohno acknowledged. All together in the box, they had a sort of rainbow effect. He was fairly certain his students would love them. 

So he bought them. 

Then it was time to bid the baker farewell, with no small amount of disappointment. Something about Aiba's demeanor struck Ohno as incredibly comfortable. Easy, even. 

Also, he was cute. 

It was only as Ohno was walking back home with his box of cookies that he realized… 

The cookies now had to survive the weekend with him, somehow, if they were going to make it to his students on Monday morning. 

Ohno was also now mulling over where he might have stashed (or lost) his good pencils. 

\--- 

Two hours later, in another part of the city, Jun was shopping. 

Generally, this was a rather serene process for Jun, but at the moment, he was a little stressed. 

They were running a sale on tablecloths, and Jun never turned down good quality tablecloths. However, he already had a few glass vases in his cart. He was struggling to determine how to fit everything in without wrinkling the tablecloths or destabilizing the delicate vases. 

"Need help?" 

That was a pretty distinctive voice but it still took Jun a second to make the connection. 

_Baker-guy?_

_Bingo._ When Jun turned he discovered Aiba standing just across the aisle from him. He looked distinctly amused. 

"Uh… I don't know." Truthfully, Jun wasn't sure he trusted the task to anyone but himself. 

"You can use my basket," Aiba was offering. "I have room." 

Jun's mind supplied several unhelpful thoughts that he quickly and unequivocally buried. 

Instead, he smiled politely. "That's… really nice of you but I still have shopping to do and I don't want to hold you up. I should probably go back and get another cart, actually..." 

"That's silly," Aiba was shrugging at him. "I have room in mine. I'm not doing anything else, I just came here for a whisk." 

_A whisk…why does he even have a cart for that?_

Apparently, Jun had acquired a shopping buddy, whether he wanted one or not. 

"Alright…" 

Still somewhat hesitantly, Jun lowered his cumbersome tablecloths carefully into Aiba's basket. He thought Aiba might be laughing at him again. "I need to go look at the candles. Maybe the lamps. Not sure." 

"Lead the way!" Aiba enthused at him. 

Jun fought off a smile. "Calm down, it's just candles." 

\--- 

After they wandered the store for a time, Jun decided it was probably a good idea to introduce himself properly. 

"Jun-kun," Aiba tried. Jun smirked quietly to himself. _This guy…_

They continued on in silence for a bit, and eventually Jun found the candles. 

They had the exact kind, shape, and color that he was looking for. He bought fifteen of them. 

"That's a lot of candles," Aiba commented. 

"They're for a party." 

"Ooh. That's right. OH! Did you pick a cake by the way?" 

Reminded rather suddenly of the cake-tasting evening, Jun found himself blushing. 

"Um…" _The cakes._ "Oh, yes. Yeah I think…" Jun trailed off to think of the requirements properly. "I'll need about four dozen? With the passionfruit, and maybe vanilla… can you do a custard inside?" 

"I dunno… I'll have to experiment." 

Aiba had a look about him like he'd never considered such a thing before and he was excited at the prospect. Jun laughed at him. 

"Let me know if it's successful." 

\--- 

As they departed the store and stepped out into the midafternoon sun, Jun realized he had far too many bags to carry properly alone… consequently, Aiba volunteered to hang around a bit longer. 

It was weird, actually, how Jun felt so at ease around him so quickly... 

There was just something very genuinely likeable about the man currently carting all of Jun's heavy candles and half of his tablecloths through the city. (Jun had the vases). 

"How much further?" Aiba quizzed, and Jun could faintly hear the whine in his voice. 

"Not that far. Through the park, actually, my friend is letting me store some stuff in his shed." 

That would be Sho's shed. 

Jun was always woefully low on space for things in his apartment. Sho had been kind enough to clear a corner of the shed at the shrine for Jun's overflow of party supplies. It was a fair deal, or it would be, when Jun finally rewarded Sho for the help and went with him on that date he promised. 

Which, Jun recalled with a serious start, was supposed to be tonight. 

He didn't know how he forgot it, maybe Aiba distracted him, but the sudden remembrance brought with it a bizarrely strong flutter like a whole cloud of butterflies were suddenly furiously dancing in Jun's stomach. 

"You ok? You look a little funny," Aiba offered. 

Jun tried to compose himself. "Fine… just realized I forgot something important." 

Aiba did not press him on what that might be. Jun wondered if Sho would be at the shrine, or busy elsewhere. He had a sudden case of nerves. A peculiar tingle that was at once familiar and not. _Weird._

"Not much farther," he promised. Aiba flashed him a rather determined smile. 

\--- 

Sho was taking advantage of a quiet moment at the shrine and having some tea in a small side garden. There was no one in his immediate vicinity. His SOUL orb was hovering subtly just above the low wooden bench where he was currently seated. 

It was beginning to get a bit easier for Sho to be comfortable with this reality. 

The reality that he was now constantly in possession of a sentient artificial intelligence with unknown motivations and capabilities. Comfortable enough with it to actually have semi-regular conversations with her, anyway. 

There were definitely significant levels of strangeness in his life lately, but, Sho supposed it was also probably the most interesting time in his life too. 

It was kind of exciting. His destiny, as SOUL said. His destiny as an Arashi soldier. 

Sho was too much in tune with his more sensitive insights. There was no denying that whatever was happening to them, it felt to Sho like an immutable truth that it was the right thing, like he had some purpose now, and it was to help people. 

He hadn't seen disconcerting things in fire his whole life for no reason. 

"Sakurai-san," SOUL prompted him out of his musings. 

He looked at her expectantly. Granted, Sho was never really sure if she could tell where he was looking at any given time. 

Sometimes, he wished she had at least one eye, just for context, you know? 

"Sorry, yes?" 

"I was inquiring as to your feelings on the person known as 'N'. We will need your soldier's instincts now more than ever." 

Sho thought it was interesting the way SOUL always said 'feelings' as if the concept were completely beyond the scope of her understanding. Then, perhaps it was. 

"I don't know much. Just a strange feeling whenever there's new information about them… It means _something_ , but I don't know what. The fire hasn't been very enlightening." 

Truthfully, he found even searching the fire lately was somewhat difficult for him. Sho was struggling to clear his mind the way he needed to in order to see. 

It was a little frustrating. 

His brow furrowed at the ground and Sho sighed a bit heavily. "Sorry, I'm not being super helpful right now." 

SOUL was silent for a moment. Sho watched her glow at him curiously in the dappled sunlight. Then she said something interesting. 

"I am often apologized to," she began. 

Sho didn't know where this was going, and it was a bit hard to guess when her voice was so monotone. 

"I do not have a programed response in my databases. I do not understand why you are all so remorseful." 

Sho couldn't help laughing. He tried to think of a way to explain this… that she might possibly understand. 

"That's just a thing people do. It's a social thing. You can just say, 'that's okay', and everything will be fine." 

Assuming it _was_ okay, but then, Sho did not think SOUL was the type to hold a grudge… or to be offended by much at all, come to think of it. 

Which was likely good, because she was probably smart enough to kill them all in their sleep, if she really wanted to. Sho fought off a faint shiver in the sunny garden. 

He was so absorbed in his conversation with the AI, Sho did not hear the approach of the other two men until they were wandering into the garden. 

"Sho-kun?" Jun waved to him, looking a bit hesitant to interrupt. 

SOUL swooped speedily out of sight, though no one seemed to notice her departure. 

Sho scrambled to his feet and waved back at Jun uncertainly. 

It was a surprise to see him this early. A shot of nervousness trilled through Sho, because he had been worrying about the date in the back of his mind all day, and Jun was there now, and he hadn't had a chance to shower yet, and- 

_…_

_Who is that guy?_

_…Why does he have a whisk?_

Jun must have sensed his confusion because he jumped right in. "This is Aiba," he introduced as they neared enough for introductions to take place. "He makes cakes." 

_Cakes?_ Sho stared at the man, only just barely taller than him, and he wondered why Jun brought him a baker. _Guess that explains the whisk._

"Um." He wasn't sure how to respond without being rude somehow. "I don't need any cakes?" 

"Aiba-kun, this is… Sakurai Sho-san." Jun's lips quirked in faint amusement. Sho made a face at him for all the formality. "Aiba helped me carry some stuff to the shed. He's very accommodating." 

"Ah," said Sho. 

He was still sort of taking in the new person standing in what was, for all intents and purposes, Sho's garden. 

"Hi," said Aiba. 

Sho noted he had the kind of smile that could probably knock you over if you weren't careful. 

"Hello," Sho nodded back, feeling suddenly intensely awkward, but not quite able to analyze why as it was occurring to him. Part of that inability was because Sho was getting hit with some intense, abrupt twinges of feelings. 

As the two came to stand closer to him, Sho could kind of… feel the guy's aura. 

It was a little overwhelming, actually. It was a strong enough feeling that Sho seemed to zone out for a moment, his eyes going a little distant. 

Jun waved a hand in front of his face looking slightly concerned. 

"Sorry," Sho apologized. "My mind is somewhere else." 

_There's something weird about him… but he doesn't feel like that woman. He doesn't feel dark at all. What **is** this? _

"Ah! I completely lost track of the time," Aiba was saying, staring in surprise at the time on his phone before he was shoving the device back into his pocket. "Oh, hey… someone dropped a ball." 

Sho and Jun both watched as Aiba snatch SOUL up from the ground where she had been laying at his feet. They watched him give her an explorative little toss into the air and catch her again in his palm. "Maybe a kid left it." 

_When did she get there?_ Sho hadn't seen her moving. 

"Better give it to Sho-san, maybe they'll come back for it," Jun cut in quickly. 

Mutely, Sho accepted SOUL when Aiba held her out, stuffing her quickly into his pocket. When he'd felt their fingers brush, that tingle of Aiba's aura was way stronger. It felt kinda… 

_Electric?_

"I should really get going. I had fun shopping! Sho-kun, it was nice meeting you! Come try my cakes some time!" 

Aiba was already hurrying out of the garden, with his whisk, apparently having somewhere he needed to be, though he failed to elaborate on what that was. 

_Maybe he has an emergency cake to bake._

Sho felt a bit like he had been through a whirlwind with all these peculiar feelings assaulting his senses. "Shopping?" he found himself asking Jun, instead of addressing any of those feelings. 

Jun shrugged at him, and he was somehow surprisingly cool about sliding onto the bench and pulling Sho down beside him. "Ran into him at the store, he helped me carry things." 

"Who is he?" Sho didn't mean to be rude, but he still didn't entirely follow the whole chain of events. 

"Ah, sorry…" Jun filled Sho in on the cakes for the anniversary party, and the new flowerbakery shop, and the explanation of Aiba finding him at the store, vases and all. 

Sho absorbed all of this quietly, nodding occasionally, but a question continued to pester him. 

"Do you think he's…" Sho didn't quite know how to say it. 

"What?" Jun prompted slowly. 

"…another soldier?" Sho finished, sounding incredibly uncertain. "He's got a funny aura." 

"I have no idea," Jun said eventually, and sighed a bit heavily. 

Something about that sigh made Sho's brow furrow in concern, but he didn't mention it. 

"He is pretty interesting…" Jun continued after a moment. 

Sho sent him a sideways look, because the way Jun said 'interesting' it sounded suspiciously to Sho like 'hot'. "Yeah, he's super interesting," he agreed, tone caught somewhere between laughing and sarcasm. 

Although, Sho admitted it was not untrue either, the interesting part or the hot part. 

When he had a moment to absorb the situation, and absorb Jun sitting there smirking at him, Sho felt incredibly awkward again, but- 

"Sorry. Do you mind… just waiting around for a while? I should really shower, I was pulling weeds all day. I promise I'll be super quick, then we can go." 

\--- 

Since Sho was already backing out of the garden, Jun just let him go with a forgiving wave. 

He knew he was early, anyway. 

All his newest acquisitions, the candles, the vases, and tablecloths, had been properly deposited into the shed with Aiba's help before they set foot in the garden. Now, there was not really much for Jun to do. 

Except stretch out to occupy the rest of the bench that Sho vacated. 

Instead of allowing himself to think on the fact that Sho might actually be naked, right at that very second, in fact, almost _certainly_ was naked, Jun tried to take a nap. 

It was only vaguely working. 

He must have drifted off at some point though, because when Jun next opened his eyes… 

Sho was standing over him with a smirk on his face, and a great deal of laughter crinkling at the corners of his eyes. 

Jun's own narrowed suspiciously at him. "You didn't take a picture, did you?" 

"What? No! I didn't. …What?" He still sounded suspect. 

"Your hair is wet," Jun pointed out instead of answering him. 

It would likely be dark soon. Jun noted the fiery orange hue to the sunlight that was now filtering into the garden, indicating the sun was already on its way down. 

"It'll dry." Sho shrugged. "Are you ready?" 

Jun noted that Sho had put on jeans and sneakers for their… date. Then, Jun wasn't exactly dressed up either, so it seemed to suit the moment. 

He was decidedly not acknowledging the slightly frenzied tango his butterflies were dancing. 

"Where are we going, exactly?" 

"Surprise," said Sho, suddenly shaking a set of car keys at him, jingling on one finger. 

Jun thought he was probably trying to look cool, but it was hard to be annoyed at Sho when it was working so well. 

He laughed at him instead. "Should I be worried?" 

"You don't trust me?" Sho almost sounded offended. 

" _Mostly_ , I trust you." Jun was fairly certain Sho was teasing… but not quite positive. 

He just didn't usually like surprises. 

Maybe this one would be different. 

\--- 

Sho did not realize it at the time, but in his distraction, he left his SOUL orb in the laundry, right along with his discarded clothes. No one was there to see the faint flickers of green lighting up the dark on Sho's bathroom floor. 

\--- 

Sho had a small car, but it was clean, Jun noted. 

He didn't badger Sho with questions about where they were going, he just let the drive happen. 

It was a nice drive. 

It was dusk in the city. The stars inset in the sky were only just newly visible. Jun tried to focus on looking at them out the passenger window rather than letting himself just stare at Sho every few minutes like he seemed inclined to do. 

It turned out to be a surprising amount of driving, actually, or Jun was surprised, because over an hour later they were still driving. They talked occasionally about the things they drove past, and about how Sho's radio was broken, but Jun found he also enjoyed the comfortable silences that periodically fell between them. 

The sky was now a deeper darker blue, the stars bright pinpricks of light caught within it. 

At some point, Jun found the car too stuffy and rolled the window down on his side. The wind felt nice, but he was grateful he had worn a slightly warmer jacket, as opposed to his occasionally more fashionable and less practical choices. 

Sho was driving a good deal slower, because they were on a twisty winding road. Wherever Sho was taking them, it was rural enough that the glaring lights of the city were long gone. 

"This is a little creepy," Jun pointed out. 

He heard Sho cough apologetically from the driver's seat. 

"Yeah, sorry. I just needed to get… away. Dunno, it feels like, when we're all fighting you know? It feels like we're kind of… connecting with nature?" 

Jun did understand that. He nodded when Sho spared him a quick uncertain glance. 

"I just thought it would be nice to actually… be in it, in nature." 

"So that's our date? Nature?" Jun tried not to sound… bothered. It really wasn't what he pictured. 

Although, it had an appeal. Even if it was a bit disorienting to be so outside of the world, it was sort of like an adventure. Sho was turning off onto a narrower road. Jun noticed him paying much closer attention to where they were going, until Sho seemed to see where he wanted to be. 

"I hope you brought food," Jun said, when he realized they left the city without eating, and he was getting hungry. 

"Of course I brought food." Sho actually sounded personally affronted that Jun was suggesting he would ever forget to bring food. 

"I'm just checking," Jun laughed. 

When they arrived, and parked, and when Jun could get out of the car to examine it properly… 

It appeared to be a lake. 

Along one edge of the lake's shore, a railed wooden pathway swerved out and across a stretch of shallow water, and through a patch of trees, into somewhere dark and out of sight. 

There were trees all around actually, closing in around the edges of the lake on all sides. Save for the small bend they approached now, marked by the boardwalk-like outcropping. Jun did not see any other people, though there were a few other cars lined up in the narrow shoulder where Sho had left his car. 

"I take it you've been here before?" The lake felt like a really out of the blue choice for Sho to make, if that wasn't the case. 

"Yeah." 

Jun thought Sho's voice sounded a little… thick. He was frowning at it as they climbed a few small wooden steps. 

"I came here with my Dad sometimes." Sho shrugged it off. He had never talked about his family at all before, other than his grandmother, and Jun never pressed him on it. He didn't now either. 

He let Sho take the lead, and Jun followed him as they crossed out onto the bridge section of the wooden pathway. 

The lake was almost eerily still. Jun could only just see the ripples in its surface as the wind occasionally unsettled it. A persistent chill rolled in off the lake, and he pulled his jacket a little tighter. 

"There's a clearing on the other side of this bridge, through the woods bit," Sho was saying, charging somewhat ahead. He was carrying a small cooler, a backpack, and the same blanket that they and Ohno had lain on in the park. 

Jun couldn't help but be charmed, and slightly amused, at how prepared Sho apparently was for this date. 

_He's taking it so seriously._ It was almost painfully sweet. 

Jun also realized, as he gazed out over the lake filled with stars, which reflected a dark and unfathomable vastness back up at the sky, that Ohno would probably love it here too. 

They would have to bring him next time. 

As they crossed the bridge through the small stretch of woods, they passed another couple heading back the other way. Each pair had to single-file by each other when they passed. Jun didn't see anyone else though, and it was so quiet. 

Their footsteps seemed loud on the wooden boards they walked over. 

"People come here to fish sometimes," Sho was saying. "We mostly came for picnics. …And the ducks." 

"Ducks?" Jun repeated. 

"They were always around. We were usually here during the day, of course," Sho added. 

Jun hadn't seen any ducks, but the image that struck him of a much tinier Sho chasing ducks along the lake's shore was incredibly adorable. 

When the two of them found the end of the pathway, they passed into a meadow. 

Jun was still a bit speechless taking in how vivid and numerous the stars were out here. Judging by the look on Sho's face, he was perhaps a little awestruck by them himself. They were so clear and abundant in places, it almost looked like a river of stars in the sky. 

"It's been a long time," Sho sighed. 

Then the two of them crossed the wide grassy expanse in silence. 

A handful of trees dotted throughout the clearing, and Sho led them toward a lone, larger one. 

The tree had long dangling branches and tiny rustling leaves. As the wind shifted them, the moonlight peeked through in fine fluctuating shafts of light, painting the tree and the grass around them with dancing shadows. 

Jun felt an incredibly tranquil mood wash over him as he helped Sho spread the blanket out beneath the tree. 

The whole trip felt a bit surreal. It had been a long time since he felt so disconnected from everything else. The quiet sounds of the woods around them (and absolutely nothing else) were a huge change. 

"So… you planned all this?" Jun finally said, mostly because he was so genuinely impressed. 

"I guess. Like I said, I just wanted to get… away." 

"I hope you brought some kind of light," Jun pointed out. 

It was much darker under the ever-shifting curtain of leaves than it had been out in the moon-drenched meadow. 

He watched Sho pat the backpack he was swinging off his shoulder and drop it, and himself, on the blanketed grass. "I did not come unprepared," Sho assured. 

Settling down beside him, Jun watched Sho dig out an odd little cylinder that turned out to be a small, dim lantern. It was not much of a light, but it was enough of one. 

The food, which Sho carefully unpacked from the cooler, was (as expected) quite good, from the rice balls to the chicken to the carefully prepared fruit slices. Sho had thought of pretty much everything, and also, been very thoughtful about it all. 

Jun pondered idly as they ate, that it was perhaps the most peaceful meal he could remember having in a long time. 

Something about the atmosphere seemed to encourage them to take their time, so they did, talking about nothing imperative, and occasionally laughing quietly, while the night buzzed on all around them. 

\--- 

It was getting cooler now. A breeze stirred snappier through the tree's branches around them. As they were eating, Sho had gone quiet. 

Jun peeked at him as he rolled over on the blanket to steal another piece of melon. "You okay?" 

"Hm?" Sho blinked at him unseeing for a moment before he seemed to come back to full awareness. "Yeah. Sorry… I get a little lost in my head sometimes." 

Jun chuckled a bit, nodding. He was used to this. "It's fine, our Ohno-sensei does it all the time." 

He worried momentarily if it was a mistake to mention Ohno, but Sho didn't seem bothered. He was actually smiling a little. 

"How did you and he…" Sho waved vaguely in the air and expected Jun to interpret that. 

"Meet?" Jun finished for him, and Sho nodded once. 

This was not how he anticipated they would spend their date, but… Sho asked. 

"We were neighbors… we knew the same people, we went to the same school, of course we were friends. I think that's just what kids do." 

They were both kind of odd kids, but Ohno stood up for Jun… more than once. At the time, Jun had been pretty tiny. Ohno was kind to him when he hadn't needed to be, when Jun was stupid and young, and probably _super_ annoying, but Ohno let him hang around anyway. 

Jun remembered that loyalty, even through the years they were not in touch. It wasn't something you just forgot. 

But he should finish his story for Sho. 

"So, my parents moved. I changed schools… we just drifted apart. I saw him sometimes, around. Summers mostly. But the age difference, I was a complete mess and he was just… always… so together. Kind of, solid. Looking back now? I think maybe I was always trying to catch up to him, when we were teenagers. By the time I did catch up, he moved on." 

Jun remembered the Ohno from those times. He remembered hot summer days, and the marginally cooler nights that mirrored them, and the festivals, the fireworks, and their ever-present tans. He remembered it now fondly, though he could never imagine them being so innocent as they were then. 

Long before they ever knew they were destined to save the world. 

"And after?" inquired Sho, apparently far more interested in hearing the rest of the story than Jun expected. It didn't seem like he was bothered by their history or bothered talking about Ohno, even on what was meant to be their date for kissing. 

Jun was a little wary of taking Sho's acceptance for granted, but as long as Sho was asking, Jun would answer. 

"He graduated, he was busy with his art and school… we both got too old for summers. I grew up. I hadn't seen him in years until he called me a few weeks ago...Just before we met you." 

"Weird…" Sho mused, looking thoughtful. "I wonder…" 

"Hmm?" Jun hummed somewhat languidly, leaning back on the blanket to look at Sho and popping a grape into his mouth. 

It seemed only then that Sho realized they were actually supposed to be on a date. 

"Nevermind," he said quietly. "We can talk about it later." 

Jun changed the subject. 

\--- 

Eventually, the food was mostly depleted, and the air around them grew colder still as night took hold. Jun sighed and found, despite the chill, he almost didn't want to go back. 

Though surely they could never leave Ohno to face the end of the world on his own. 

That didn't mean Jun was ready to go back _yet_. He did have a promise to keep. 

Sho looked… surprisingly nervous, like he couldn't quite look at Jun. His cheeks were also super pink, though Jun thought he could see the faint vapor of Sho's breath in the air, so that might not be all nerves. 

_We can't stay out here all night._

Jun was fully aware he was monopolizing most of the blanket, angled as he was, but that was sort of the point. "Are you planning to freeze over there?" 

He tipped his head backward and slightly upside down to see Sho, seated a small distance away. 

He failed at not watching Sho lick his lips uncertainly as he wiggled himself closer to the middle of the blanket, and consequently, closer to Jun. It was not quite close enough for Jun. He was ready to say so but Sho kept moving. 

From the corner of his eye he watched Sho stretch out at a slight angle too. When he lay back, his head only just brushed Jun's, and Sho's hair tickled faintly at the top of his head. 

Jun supposed, it was a start. When he tried to look, all he could see was the soft profile of Sho's face in the relative dark and fluctuating shadows. The night buzzed somewhat louder, but he could barely hear it over the sudden thud of his heartbeat, and Sho wasn't even that close yet. 

The anticipation was itching at him, and Jun didn't know why it was suddenly so strong, but then Sho was talking. 

"So, what do you think it's really all about… our destiny?" 

Drawing in a breath at the question, and even the air now felt cool in his lungs, Jun pushed the line a bit further. He rolled slightly in Sho's direction. Only so he could push himself up on his elbows and peer down at Sho skeptically. 

He had closed a few more centimeters of the distance between them. 

Their shoulders were _almost_ brushing again. 

"You think I know the secret meaning to all of this? Honestly, I've just been trying not to die." _And trying not to fall all over the place. Badly._ "Aren't you the one with all the insight?" 

Sho snuffled a bit of a laugh. 

Jun watched him with no small amount of warmth, yet Sho was gazing up toward the treetops, and he didn't see it. As the darkness sang all around them, Jun recalled his evening with Ohno the night before. 

More specifically, he recalled how he responded to Ohno when asked a similar question about their destiny… 

_This is destiny._

Maybe… this, here and now, _was_ their destiny. I mean… if it was, who was Jun to argue? 

Probably, he realized, Sho would dance around this thing between them all night. Then they would end up making out in Sho's way too small car outside Jun's apartment. 

Jun was far too impatient for all that. 

"I guess it fe…feels right…?" Sho trailed off, because Jun was rather abruptly straddling his thighs. 

One of his knees pressed into the cooler grass on Sho's other side, and Jun tried _not_ to focus on how Sho's thighs felt between his own. Because there were more imperative matters. 

Sho's eyes were pretty wide. Jun tried not to laugh at him. 

"Relax, you're like a rock," he accused, trying to ease the tension between them while he also tried to get comfortable. Cautiously. 

"I'm a warm rock," Sho pointed out nonsensically. Jun thought his cheeks looked redder yet though it was hard to tell in the low light. His hands settled tentatively at Jun's hips, and Jun had to fight off a shiver he blamed on the wind. 

"I really can't tell, you'll have to get closer." He tried to leave out the sarcasm, but it wasn't really working. 

At least Sho thought he was funny. 

When Sho tried to sit up though, his jacket did not cooperate. The effort proved too great, and he failed miserably, falling back on the ground again with a quiet _umph_ while Jun laughed at him. 

"That's embarrassing…" Sho sighed. 

"It's fine… I'll come to you." 

With some trepidation of his own, which he hoped Sho wouldn't notice in the dark, Jun carefully lowered himself down atop Sho, until they were more chest to chest. 

Their eyes locked, and Jun felt the nearly tangible question mark hovering between them. 

With his fingers just catching in the stiff fabric of Sho's jacket for purchase, Jun arched himself enough to hover his lips over Sho's… momentarily. 

But then he pulled back. Sho looked a little like he didn't know if he was stuck in a dream or not. 

"Are you ready for this?" Jun checked doubtfully. His hair fell somewhat annoyingly into his eyes and he ignored it. 

"I'm waiting for you," Sho pointed out. He actually sounded fairly impatient now. Then Sho was tapping his hip in such a way that, if his tap had been just a _tiny_ bit harder... 

Jun's eyes narrowed slightly. "Sakurai. Did you just spank me? I didn't even kiss you yet." 

"Then do it already." It almost sounded like Sho was demanding it…. or daring him. 

Jun had trouble walking away from dares. 

Seeing as this was their first kiss (and being that it was not in the heat of the moment just after a fierce, life-threatening battle) Jun had planned to take his time. Jun had wanted to explore Sho's lips gradually (and thoroughly), because Sho had _fantastic_ lips but… 

That was not what happened. 

Not when there was so much tension. Tension that Jun felt he _needed_ to break now. 

When he kissed Sho, it was hard. 

It almost hurt at first, perhaps because Sho also surged unexpectedly upward just as hard, and they collided a little, but they found their center of balance… and pressure. When Jun nipped at Sho's lips, it was not nearly as gently as he had been biting Ohno's. Sho gave a resulting little hiss against his mouth, and Jun thought it was worth it. 

Breathless with his own kind of profound frustration, Jun was further rewarded when Sho's hands were rather suddenly on his ass and dragging him closer pretty insistently. 

That was. _Ooh._

In response, or retaliation, Jun abandoned Sho's lips, biting down just beneath his jawline instead. Once again, Sho's hushed, low moan was worth the effort. 

Somewhere in the back of Jun's mind, it registered this was all moving very fast, so much faster than with Ohno. Some part of Jun was attempting to speak sense to his otherwise preoccupied body but… 

…but Sho was tugging at the buttons on Jun's coat rather suddenly and Jun found he had no real inclination to stop him. 

He was getting warmer, and Jun felt he couldn't get quite close enough. 

Fairly impatiently, Sho started shoving Jun's jacket off his shoulders as Jun was hurriedly kissing him again. As soon as he freed a hand from his sleeve Jun was sliding it past Sho's cheek and up into his hair to hold on and assist in keeping their lips locked. _Not yet._

Peripherally, Jun was aware that Sho was also trying to get out of his own jacket, which was somewhat difficult with Jun on top of him. Rather than help, Jun traced his lips up to Sho's ear and bit that too. He thought he felt Sho _actually_ shudder under him. 

That was fun. 

Then things were moving. Quickly. 

There was a quietly possessive little growl in Sho's voice when he rolled them over. Jun thought it was a mystifying blend of hilarious and incredibly hot. As his back hit the ground, Sho landed on top of him. 

At the same time that he was flailing off his jacket behind him, Sho simultaneously began sucking his way down Jun's throat like he was trying to map it out with his lips. It was overpoweringly distracting, and it was sending interesting feelings swirling all through him that Jun really wasn't prepared to address right now. 

All he actually managed to say, was "… _fuck_." 

"Wha-what? ...what?" Sho pulled back to look at him, perplexed, and mildly concerned. 

"Sh-shh, it's good don't ruin it. Come back." 

Jun arched up to kiss him again, fingers catching in the fabric of Sho's shirt and tugging him bodily closer. The air around them was too cold to leave any space between them. Even if Jun was feeling rather intensely _warm_ , and Sho was just very… very pressing between his legs right now. 

Again, that voice in his head was warning him that they were seriously rushing, and again, Jun told it to shut up. 

This was made somewhat easier when Sho's tongue started sliding sensationally against his own. Jun moaned _way_ louder than he meant to, a bit lost but still faintly aware he needed to breathe. 

Did it really matter if he was loud out here? It definitely mattered if he could breathe. 

When the kiss did finally break, they were both breathless. 

"Oh my god," Sho mumbled into Jun's neck rather unsteadily. He sounded pretty dazed. 

Jun agreed with the sentiment entirely. 

He did the only thing he could do, which was pant into Sho's hair while he tried to calm himself down at least a little. Which granted, would work better if Sho weren't already trying to distract him again. 

"Ss-Sakurai…" he tried to warn. 

It took all of Jun's willpower not to start moaning again when Sho started nipping seriously hard at the base of his throat and- "W-what are you doing?" 

"Shh. Souvenir." Sho murmured, too deeply for it not have an effect on Jun. 

He sounded way too smug, but… 

…his voice was tickling against very sensitive skin, and this time Jun did moan, and there was absolutely nothing he could do to hold it in. 

Sho decided to repay him with a few extra little sucking bites to that same place. Now Jun was the one shuddering faintly when Sho started to trace the imperfections he just created on Jun's throat with his tongue, in no particular hurry, it seemed, to stop. 

For a few beats, Jun completely gave in, and let Sho do what he was doing, and enjoyed what that was doing to every part of him, because it was amazing things. But with a slight jolt, he could feel Sho's warm fingers, and the chilly bite of the air, brushing at his side just under the hem of his shirt. 

At the same time that Jun was arching up into the touch, he was trying to pull Sho's hand out from under his shirt. 

"We should… wait." 

That was not an easy thing to say. 

Sho was looking down at him in a way that reminded Jun a great deal of the way Ohno blinked at him last night when they'd been kissing for a while. Sho's lips were super red. Jun had to resist the urge to just start kissing them all over again. 

"I uh… okay," Sho said slowly, still looking like he was half on another planet. 

"Not that I want to," Jun hurried to add, because he _really_ didn't. "Just…" 

"Ohno-kun?" Sho asked in a quiet murmur. 

Jun wished a bit (and not for the first time) that he was able to read Sho's mind right now. "Yeah," he whispered. 

"…okay," Sho repeated. 

For a moment they only watched each other. 

Jun was somewhat startled when Sho pressed down to kiss him again, far more slowly, and more gently than any of their others. When it deepened, Jun let it. 

But then he groaned admonishingly against Sho's lips all over again. "Sho…" 

The message seemed to sink in that even if they both wanted to continue it was way too soon to continue, and they really should think this through. Whether they wanted to or not. 

Mostly not. 

He sighed again when Sho pushed himself up and fell back to sitting on the blanket once more, giving them both a little room to breathe. 

Jun just sort of lay there for a moment, trying to divert his mind away from the marginally uncomfortable situation currently existing in his pants. 

"We should have done that earlier," Sho noted. 

"If we did that earlier we…" he trailed off. "Things would have escalated." 

Sho laughed at him. "Didn't they escalate just now?" 

Jun snorted and shot him a slightly exasperated look. At the very least, he managed to sit up like a normal person without wincing. Now, with the warmth of body heat rapidly fading away, they were both shivering a bit. Jun almost wanted to get closer again, just for warmth. 

Except he had a feeling if he did, his willpower to resist Sho's… everything, might just completely crumble. 

"They definitely escalated," he finally said, dragging his discarded jacket closer and shrugging himself back into it. " _Super_ escalated." 

Sho was laughing at him again. 

They both took a few minutes to button buttons while the droning noises of the night around them seemed to get louder in the silence, after everything that just occurred between them. 

If Jun let himself think about it for more than a few seconds, he would undoubtedly get distracted again. He focused instead on calmly gathering up the few things that were still left out from earlier and packing them all back into Sho's cooler. 

"I don't wanna go back," Sho complained with a quiet sigh. 

Jun understood. 

"We'll come back," he promised, because he knew somehow that it was true. "We'll bring Satoshi-kun next time." 

"That sounds good," Sho agreed immediately. 

It prompted in Jun a lowkey surge of affection which took him a bit by surprise. Sho was being really super understanding, actually. 

He handed the light to Sho, who set it atop the cooler, and together the two of them rolled up the blanket. When they were done, Sho swung the dim light around the flattened grassy area just to make sure they didn't forget anything. 

Jun was already wandering back out into the meadow, waiting for Sho to join him. 

It was a relatively sad feeling he developed as they were leaving the clearing. Jun could not help thinking, as they crossed the wooden path back to Sho's car, that the city would feel terribly hectic after all of this peace. 

He spared one last glance to the vastness of the lake, and the stars above it, still pretty appreciative that Sho had decided to bring them here of all places. 


	7. Act Six: Part Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The boys find some equilibrium. 
> 
> Aiba sees some weird shit.
> 
> Junba have an adventure... 
> 
> Some basketball happens. 
> 
> Also, THE FOURTH SOLDIER IS DISCOVERED WHO COULD IT BE. 
> 
> There’s a Monster and the world is still in mortal danger.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I did a thing on my Dreamwidth [here](https://itsabrandnewworld.dreamwidth.org/2641.html) for anyone who is interested.  
> It’s a YouTube playlist plus a list of relevant lyrics I’ve been using for some inspiration for this fic (besides Arashi songs of course).
> 
> This one was so long I had to split it into two chapters and they're both still really long. I don’t know how this keeps happening. I should probably get used to it.

Act 6 Part Two

On the ride back to the city, Sho hummed thoughtfully at him, and Jun hummed questioningly in return. 

"Nothing," Sho said after a moment. 

Jun was fairly certain it was something, so he waited for Sho to continue. 

"It just wasn't the date I expected." 

Jun laughed. "Me either." He might be blushing, thankfully, the car was mostly dark save for the occasional beam of moonlight. "It was pretty amazing… that place." 

And a few other things besides, but Jun didn't say that. He was pretty certain it had been all too obvious how he felt about things at the time. _Stop thinking about it._

"I was worried you wouldn't like it," Sho's quietly amused voice cut through his thoughts. 

"Why wouldn't I?" 

"I don't know… you don't really strike me as an… outdoors type person?" 

Sho had a point. 

"I'm not really, but it is super peaceful there. …and I haven't ever really spenttime out of the city so, it's just new." Jun did usually enjoy new experiences, whatever they happened to be. 

"In a good way," he added, just in case Sho had any doubts. 

When Sho smiled at him that way, Jun was glad all over again that the man who had once seemed so hidden behind high walls was actually open to giving him a chance, to giving them a chance even, destiny or not. 

At the moment, it felt like pieces fitting into place, and for Jun that was pretty good. 

\--- 

When Sho dropped him off at his apartment, Jun did not immediately get out of the car. He grabbed Sho by the jacket and pulled him into a rather promising kiss instead. 

Unfortunately, the promise would have to be delayed for a time longer. He was still considerably pleased with how red Sho's lips were again when he finally did get out of the car. 

He spent the rest of the weekend trying to prepare for a few upcoming work events. 

He also spent it trying not to think about all of the things he would much rather be doing, and all of the people he would much rather be d… _Right. Moving on._

It was going to be a long few days. 

Jun was so distracted, he never did notice the occasional green flicker of light, dancing in SOUL's faint center on his bedside table. 

\--- 

When Monday rolled around, Jun received a message early in the day, from Ohno, who apparently decided to open a group message with both he and Sho. 

_Lunch? Park? Noon? ^^_

Jun had been tapping out an affirmative when he saw Sho's reply pop up as well. It was a sticker of an adorable rabbit giving a thumbs-up. Jun only realized he was smiling weirdly at his phone when SOUL seemed to glow to life on his bedside table. 

"Matsumoto-san." 

"Yes," he said rather fast, distractedly sending his own quick affirmative reply to Sho and Ohno, and not really looking at her. 

"It is probable that a Monster is active locally. It is imperative that you remain cautious." 

"You don't have any more information than that?" He was aware he was complaining, but Jun was a bit tired. There had been quite a lot on his mind as of late. 

"I do not." There was a very long pause before she added. "I apologize." 

_She's learning,_ Jun mused to himself, though he didn't know what, if anything, it meant. 

"It's okay," he replied with a faint smile. "Better warn the other boys." 

"Yes, Matsumoto-san." 

\--- 

That afternoon at the park, Sho was more than just a little nervous. 

He hadn't spoken to Jun since their date. He didn't know if Jun told Ohno how the date went, or anything they… did together, or if Ohno even knew that the date happened at all. 

The whole experience was a little nerve-wracking. 

Sho was pretty excited to see Jun again though. 

When he arrived, Jun wasn't there yet, but Ohno was perched on the same small hill they'd had lunch on the week before. Ohno was looking in the opposite direction. 

Sho cleared his throat as he approached, not wanting to startle him. 

"Ah, Sho-kun," Ohno greeted him. 

Sho greeted him back with all politeness, though he could feel his cheeks flushing as questions swirled through his head that he could never bring himself to ask. 

"I brought the blanket," Sho said after a moment, feeling only slightly awkward over knowing that the last time he'd been on this blanket, he and Jun… yep. 

Ohno scrambled up immediately, gesturing for Sho to let him help, with surprising clarity considering he didn't say anything aloud. Together, the two of them carefully shook the blanket out. 

By the time they were plopping onto it, Sho felt even more awkward since he still didn't know what to say to Ohno. 

He guessed Ohno must have sensed it somehow, because Ohno was sending Sho a reassuring smile. It was a bit comforting. 

"How was your date?" he asked. 

Sho was nervous all over again. _Looks like Jun told him we had one at least._

"Good… We went to a lake." 

Ohno looked interested, if not the slightest bit amused at Sho's flustered state, so Jun must not have given him _too_ many details. 

"Oh? That sounds nice. Was it far?" 

"Maybe an hour?" Sho mused, with a thoughtful head tilt, that it really depended on traffic. "Jun says we need to go back with you. …If you want to." He was definitely blushing again. 

Sho looked away to hide it and was somewhat relieved to see Jun crossing the park in their direction. "Ah! There he is." 

Ohno leaned around Sho to look too. Sho noted the look of perfect fondness that seemed to strike the older man. 

Though, he completely understood now. 

Jun also came with their lunch, which made them both pretty happy. 

Before Jun made it to their hill, Ohno's attention seemed to get drawn away. A look of bewilderment overtaking him. Sho turned around to try and follow his gaze. 

As did Jun, when he joined them. "What is it?" 

"Takeru-kun is back," Ohno murmured quietly in reply. 

"So is his fan club," Sho noted, realizing why Ohno was frowning like that. 

The crowd of girls, who the week before were only a relative handful, now took up a good portion of the area surrounding the basketball court where Takeru was practicing. 

"Strange…" Jun admitted, settling down with them to stretch his legs out on Ohno's other side. "They've multiplied." 

When Sho smirked at him, Jun flashed a winning smile back. Sho thought it was kind of stupid how he started blushing _more_. Honestly. 

Jun dropped a bag of convenience store sandwiches on the blanket in front of the other two men, and immediately they set to digging through them, trying to find what they wanted most. He definitely bought an assortment. 

It took Sho a moment to decide on a sandwich before he could focus on anything else. 

"I guess word of his legendary hotness is spreading," he pondered wryly. He was still not terribly impressed by Takeru. 

_Jun on the other hand…_ Sho had trouble keeping his eyes off Jun, instead of watching the court like everyone else. He was so distracted, Sho didn't notice when he was also being watched. 

"I think you're drooling," Ohno teased gently, repeating Sho's words back at him from the week before. 

_Oh my god._

Busy carefully selecting his own lunch from the remaining sandwiches in the bag, it seemed to take a moment for Jun to realize who Ohno was talking to, and then to actually catch Sho looking. Then he started laughing too. 

Sho rather quickly returned his attention to his sandwich with an unthinking pout. 

"Sorry…" he said to the sandwich. 

"I don't mind," Jun pointed out, though he sounded far too smug and Sho objected to that too. 

Ohno seemed to take pity on him and changed the subject. "Sho-kun says there's a lake I'm supposed to see?" 

"Ah! Yes! You would absolutely love it, it's so pretty. You have to come." 

Once Jun got started describing the lake and everything that went along with it (well, not _everything_ ), and Ohno began interjecting curious questions, Sho actually turned his attention briefly to the basketball court. 

There was still a feeling, faint but there, that something was off. It just wasn't enough to go on. They hadn't seen anything _that_ weird yet. 

Sho's senses lately were still… very confused. 

It was a lot harder for him to focus. An underlying tension had been troubling him that Sho didn't know how to pacify. 

Emotions just made it so much harder to concentrate, especially when they were strong. 

That's probably all it was. 

\--- 

Aiba didn't open his shop on Mondays. 

The weekends were usually really busy for him. When they were over, Aiba always needed at least _one_ day to address all the things that tended to pile up on him when his days were full. 

Occasionally, he would get bored by Tuesday and open then, but usually he always kept Monday free. 

Which didn't mean he didn't spend the day _in_ the shop, cleaning mostly, but also baking… and experimenting with baking. It was a lot of work! 

A lot of work that he really enjoyed, so that helped a great deal in the whole dedication department. 

Still, by the time lunch rolled around, Aiba needed out. He wasn't exactly _hungry_ but he felt this strong desire for fresh air that was leading him to meander his way toward the nearby park, which he had never felt any compulsion to explore before today. _Odd._

It was a little chilly, but Aiba had a sweater, and he didn't think the wind was too bad. 

He was just wondering if he should take the long path that swung around the outside of the park, or if he should take the path that led deeper into the woods, toward that shrine Jun took him to the other day, when something stopped Aiba dead in his tracks. 

_That's weird. What is that?_ It felt like something heavy was in the air all around him, and it grew stronger when he turned in certain directions, and it was… super confusing to Aiba. It had him momentarily standing at the corner of the park, turning vaguely in various directions, attempting to decide which way to go. 

He had questions, and because he didn't know what else to do, Aiba decided to follow the feeling. He tracked the feeling when it grew stronger, and stronger still… 

Following it through the park, Aiba found himself standing on the fringes of a large crowd of young girls. 

_There's so many of them._

Aiba wasn't sure why he was nervous, but he felt really uneasy at the whole scene. 

They were all mostly short, so Aiba didn't really have trouble seeing over the mob to what they were all squealing at. There was an okay looking dude playing basketball, but Aiba didn't really see what all the fuss was about. 

He'd seen way cuter dudes. Just last week even he… 

_Ugh._ The feeling got stronger all of a sudden, and Aiba thought he saw something…ethereal, swirling up from the girls in the crowd, and dancing through the air to swirl around the dude playing basketball until it seemed to absorb right into him. 

Was he seeing things? 

That was a pretty fucked up thing to see, honestly. What…? 

Aiba felt like he should maybe do something, like, maybe investigate, or call someone. _Who do you call for something like this?_

"You too, Aiba-kun?" 

Aiba jumped and whirled around, but it was only Jun. 

He laughed a little nervously, trying to pretend like he hadn't just seen weird body essence flying out of people into a basketball player. 

'Cause that just wasn't a normal thing that you were supposed to see. 

\--- 

Jun hadn't meant to startle Aiba. Well… maybe a little, but Aiba looked kind of pale and Jun felt immediately bad about it. "You ok?" 

Aiba shook his head, then nodded, then looked torn. "I'm fine," he said eventually. 

"Right…" Jun said skeptically. 

"Okay, hang on." 

He was a little surprised when Aiba grabbed his arm and unceremoniously yanked him back away from the crowd and into a small circle of hedges. 

Jun swatted a branch out of the way before it could smack him in the face and sent Aiba a worried look. "What are you _doing_?" 

"Look. That guy right. There's something seriously creepy about him, and I don't know what it is, but something feels really wrong about whatever is happening over there. I just don't know what to do about it." 

Jun stared at him. It sounded suspiciously like... 

"I know it sounds unbelievable! I'm sorry, it's probably just my imagination." 

"Calm down," Jun reassured. "I believe you." 

Aiba looked really relieved. 

Jun wondered… how much should he really tell the guy? SOUL hadn't given him any guidance, and he wasn't even for _sure_ that Aiba was… 

Maybe he was just really sensitive? 

"I think it's kind of weird too. Those girls are _way_ too young for him." 

Jun wasn't lying about that, and it avoided him having to go into… details. 

Aiba was still frowning. "I just have this feeling like I should keep an eye on him, on them. I don't think I should leave them alone." 

He eyed Aiba. It was really sweet how much he cared. Jun was a little worried about leaving him alone though, so… 

"Let me help. I'm getting to be kind of an expert on sneaking around, actually." 

Aiba gave him an odd look, but he didn't ask why. 

They found a spot near the bushes that was out of the way, but still let them maintain a view of the basketball court. Jun couldn't help shooting occasional glances at Aiba, but the man's gaze was completely locked on the court, and the crowd, like he was just _waiting_ for something. 

He looked like he was afraid to blink. 

"You sure you're ok?" Jun checked. 

"I'm fine," Aiba said a little too quickly. "Just… let's just watch." 

They watched for awhile actually, but nothing was really happening aside from the abundantly obvious. Whatever Aiba was waiting for, it didn't seem to be manifesting. 

After an hour or so the girls began dispersing, slowly, and it looked like Takeru was done playing for the day, though Aiba still seemed disinclined to move. 

"We should follow him," Aiba whispered. 

Jun's eyebrows rose a bit, but, well. Aiba maybe wasn't wrong either. "Carefully," he interjected. "We should keep our distance." 

If there was a chance that Takeru was a Monster, and a chance that Aiba was just… a normal and very sensitive person, Jun didn't exactly want to put him at risk for a reckless spy mission. 

He was way too cute for that. 

Sighing internally, Jun pulled Aiba back into a bush when a small cluster of giggling girls passed them by. When they checked back, Takeru was walking away, already crossing the street out of the park. 

Aiba was tugging on his jacket sleeve, which Jun thought was completely unnecessary, but after a few beats, they followed. 

He noticed that Aiba kept wanting to rush way ahead and get too close. Jun had to keep pulling him back behind random shit just not to be seen. 

It felt completely ridiculous. It was also sort of exciting. 

Jun's breath caught a little in his throat when Takeru made a rather sudden turn. He may well have seen them, but Aiba was the one to think quick this time and pull Jun out of sight. 

Aiba dragged him back behind a huge ivy-covered mailbox and that breath Jun had caught stuttered out of him hard when he stumbled. Right into Aiba, who, at the very least, managed to catch him. 

"Whoops," said Aiba, at that same time Jun was saying, "Ah…sorry." 

They disentangled pretty quickly. He was trying to ignore the way Aiba was smirking at him, because Jun had enough boyfriends just at the moment, thank you. 

Jun peeked around the mailbox, but Takeru was already gone. 

"Come on, I don't want to lose him." 

"Wait- !" 

Jun tried to keep going, but Aiba pulled him back. 

Something in Jun's chest gave a weird little flip and he despaired at himself, but Aiba was talking. 

"I have a really bad feeling. I don't think we should follow him anymore. It's too weird. Can we uh… can we just go back?" 

As Aiba was speaking, he was really frowning. 

Jun found it difficult to think of a reason to keep following Takeru that would justify putting Aiba through undue discomfort… 

Nevermind that this was all Aiba's idea in the first place. 

"Fine…" 

For a moment, they stood there behind the mailbox regarding each other, not sure how to proceed. 

"Now what?" Jun said after beat. 

"It's my day off, so… milkshakes?" proposed Aiba. 

Jun liked the way his mind worked. 

\--- 

After everything that just happened to them, Aiba kind of wanted to ask Jun why he was so cool with following some random guy through the city. 

Yet something about the conflicted look on the Jun's face whenever the subject came up made Aiba think twice about pushing for answers. Even if he really, _really_ wanted to know. 

He would have to settle for letting the questions swirl through his head instead. 

Did Jun know what was going on? Who was that guy? Why was Jun okay with following him? Did Jun feel all the heavy stuff that Aiba was feeling around that dude? What was wrong with those girls? 

…Why did Jun sometimes look at Aiba like he wanted to eat him? 

Maybe not that last one. 

"How's your milkshake?" is what Aiba actually asked. 

"Delightful," Jun returned with a smile. 

Aiba smiled back, though he was pretty sure they were both probably thinking a lot of things, and just not actually saying them. 

Maybe, it should have been terribly awkward, but Aiba didn't really feel that way. Though he did notice that throughout the majority of their milkshakes and their conversations, they were never really quite able to make eye contact. 

As it turned out, they did not discuss any of their afternoon spy adventures. 

Mostly, they talked about what their jobs were like, and discussed the surprising amount of crossover in their clientele. Jun remembered to ask him whether the custard inside cakes experiment had been successful, which delighted Aiba a little bit. 

So long as the custard layer was thin enough, he assured Jun it should work just fine. 

Aiba felt sort of… burnt out by that heavy feeling they had been following. He could remember that it seemed to cling to the guy, like a dark goopy cloud. It felt like the weight of it had sapped half of Aiba's typically abundant energy right out of him. 

By the look on Jun's face, he felt the same. 

The sugar was helping a little, and thankfully the silences when they happened were comfortable. 

"I should probably get back to the shop," Aiba eventually said, when they had been sitting in front of empty glasses for perhaps a little too long. 

"Okay…" Jun might've looked a little disappointed. "Call me if you need anything more for the cakes?" 

"It should be fine, I'll have them ready for sure." 

"Thanks, Aiba-chan." 

Aiba beamed a little. Jun seemed to find the energy in him to smile weakly back even if he did look very tired too. 

_I really didn't imagine it. He felt all of that stuff too, for sure._

As he turned to leave, Jun stopped him. Aiba blinked down in surprise. They were finally actually looking at each other. 

"Hey, be careful okay? Don't go around following people on your own?" 

Aiba didn't really know why Jun looked so worried, but then Aiba had been getting the feeling all along that Jun knew way more than he was saying. 

It did seem like he could trust Jun, or at least… Jun seemed genuine about his concern. 

"Okay. I'll be super careful. I won't follow anyone." Aiba shook his head, then nodded, not sure if that was really affirmative enough, but he did really mean it. 

When Aiba sent Jun a wave on his way out the door, Jun waved back. 

Aiba hoped he would be careful too. 

\--- 

The following day, Jun decided he needed to call an emergency meeting at headquarters. There were things the three of them ought to discuss. Enough things that Jun knew they could never fit all of them into a single lunch hour. 

He took his time composing the invitation before he sent it Sho and Ohno's way. 

Which was silly, because within the hour they both confirmed rather enthusiastically that they would be there. 

\--- 

That night, the three of them arrived at the karaoke place separately. 

First Jun, then Sho, and finally Ohno, who was held up at school a bit later than anticipated. 

When Ohno arrived, Jun kissed him ever so briefly in greeting, as he had done with Sho. Neither seemed terribly bothered by Jun's kiss distribution, even if there were, inevitably, a wave of blushing cheeks all around. 

Jun was a bit astounded that things were going so well. 

He was fairly certain he must have been a really amazing person in a previous life, if this was supposed to be his destiny. However, given what he needed to discuss with them, Jun thought their dynamic may be destined for another fundamental shift, and soon. 

"What's up?" Ohno queried once they all were mostly comfortable. He was carefully making everyone color-coded cocktails, and none of them would be turned down. 

It felt so oddly normal, Jun noticed. 

He tried to decide how to begin. He perched at a seat across the bar from Ohno, Sho took the one beside him, and then Jun was talking. 

He told them about the day before, about his lingering at the park, and finding Aiba. Then he went into the tailing of Takeru, and the spying. Finally, Jun explained about the milkshakes, just so it wasn't all doom and gloom. 

Sho appeared to be withdrawing into his own thoughts with a pensive frown. 

Ohno only registered slight surprise at the tale. "Baker guy… you think?" 

Jun interpreted the vague question fairly easily. Ohno was asking if they thought Aiba was an Arashi soldier. 

"He definitely has the instinct for it…" but Jun didn't know yet for sure. 

"Maybe he's just really sensitive?" Ohno considered tentatively. 

Sho sighed, shaking his head. "No… I think Jun might be right. There's, something… _argh_. I don't know. SOUL has been very quiet. I can't _feel_ anything properly, lately. I can't see it either." 

Sho sounded even more tightly wound than he normally did. Jun wondered what that was all about. 

They all sipped their respective drinks, until Jun pulled his attention away from his own swirling purple liquid to examine Sho with some concern. 

"You're having trouble? With your… fire thing?" He asked as delicately as he could, since Jun wasn't sure how Sho felt about it. 

Sho was pouting a bit at the red bubbles in his glass. "Some..." He didn't go on at first. 

Jun took a careful sip through a tiny straw and waited, not really taking his eyes off Sho. 

"It feels … I can't really focus at all. This usually doesn't happen to me, and I'm really not sure what's going on. That guy, Aiba-kun. When you brought him to the garden last week…? His aura is like…" 

_Electric_ . Jun blinked at the thought but as his drink began to do its work, the sentiment was swept out of his memory, and Sho was talking again. 

"It's just really intense." Sho finished. "Maybe that has something to do with why I'm so… jammed, but I really just don't know for sure." 

It sounded like Sho had given it an awful lot of consideration. 

"I don't think I feel it _that_ intensely, but I do feel something…" Jun trailed off, but a tipsy buzz was pulling at his inhibitions, running his mouth a bit for him. He was distantly aware it was probably not a good time to be teasing anyone but, it was difficult to resist. 

"Are you pretty sure this isn't just you thinking Aiba's really hot?" 

Sho made a face at him. "It's not like that." 

"I think Sho-kun is just way more sensitive to this stuff…" Ohno spoke up. 

"I guess that makes sense," Jun considered distractedly. "I'm hardly the expert, I'm mostly just here for the kissing." 

Ohno laughed. 

Sho was giving him a faintly exasperated look. "Should we not possibly be more focused on saving the world, and less focused on kissing all the time?" 

Jun peered at him with amused disbelief. "Ah… if you're not interested, then I won't bother you with the kissing anymore, Sho-san." 

Sho looked suddenly very torn, and that made the taunt totally worth it to Jun, who was failing entirely to hold back his actual smile any longer. 

"Right. I thought not," Jun concluded a bit smugly. Sho was blushing at him, so that was fun. 

Fuzzily, Jun realized he may have gotten them a tad sidetracked from the point at hand… 

"I'm really more worried about Takeru-kun. The whole thing is getting really creepy. I'm worried about those kids too," Ohno cut in, frowning softly, and bringing them all somewhat back to the reality of the stakes they were actually playing with here. 

"You're right," Sho conceded completely with, Jun thought, a surprisingly warm look at Ohno. 

_That's kinda new._ At least, it was to Jun. He sighed, downed the last of his drink, and raised his empty glass at both of them, rather yielding to their judgement on the matter. 

"Park after school tomorrow?" Ohno proposed. 

It would be the most likely place to keep an eye on Takeru, and that, for the moment, was priority number one. All three of them appeared to be in agreement about it too, which Jun assumed probably meant it was the right thing. 

As they left headquarters that evening, part of Jun wanted to keep Ohno back. 

He wanted to talk to Ohno about everything happening with Sho. He wanted to talk about the lake date in detail, and to figure out together how he even felt about it all. Ohno was really good at helping him do that but… there just wasn't time. 

It was already late. They would all have busy days tomorrow, including another reconnaissance mission. 

Unfortunately for Jun, matters concerning his love life would just have to wait. 

\--- 

That same night in his shop's kitchen, Aiba paused in his careful frosting process to dab at his forehead with a tea towel, unknowingly smearing it with pink icing. 

As he stood there, surveying the dozens of cupcakes he was topping with frosting-roses, a rather stubborn inclination hit him. Something was telling Aiba that he might… want to consider going back to the park again tomorrow. 

That it might be important. 

_That's weird,_ he thought with some bewilderment. _…I should probably go, right?_

The feeling was pretty insistent, so, Aiba decided he would. 

\--- 

The next afternoon when Aiba arrived at the park, there was not really much to see. 

The basketball court was empty. Of people, at least. Just off the court, a single basketball lay beside a small bench. Aiba was pretty sure school had let out by now, but he didn't see any kids around. Or… anyone really. 

It was eerily empty, in fact. Even the playground looked deserted. 

That feeling… like he was _supposed_ to be there, didn't go away. 

Aiba didn't feel right leaving. 

He wandered around for a while but did not see anything out of the ordinary. As he was wandering, patches of the sky began to rumble above him with flickers of illumination. By the time he realized what was happening, there was nowhere near enough time for him to avoid it. 

The clouds opened above him and dropped a significant amount of rain on the park. 

_Great… now I'm soaked._

Maybe he was exaggerating a bit, but it felt like this was getting to be a pattern for Aiba. He thought he ought to start carrying an umbrella more often. 

Aiba did not see the sense in trying to find shelter at this point. Not sure what to do instead, Aiba wandered back toward the basketball court in the odd hope that whatever reason he was here would make itself apparent if he waited around there long enough. 

But he did not have to wait. 

It also appeared that Aiba was not the only one who had gotten caught in the short downpour, which was only now beginning to let up. 

\--- 

"We probably could have planned that better," Sho admitted. 

Ohno and Jun looked as damp as he did. 

Ohno, at least, was snickering at him. 

Jun kind of glared, but there wasn't much behind it except faint annoyance so Sho thought it was probably safe to grin in return. He laughed when Jun gave him a playful shove. 

They had discovered even before the rain began that the park was particularly abandoned that day. 

It was definitely weird for it to be so empty, but Sho didn't feel anything overtly distressing or _bad_ in the park now. It was hard to know if there was anything to be concerned about. 

The three of them looped back around to the basketball court area again. 

A surprisingly warm sun was beginning to creep out from the breaking clouds above them, luckily, because Sho didn't want to be cold _and_ wet. 

Then it hit him. Sho felt something. Not a bad feeling, and it wasn't a Monster. It was like a… buzzing? 

_Oh._

Sho recognized the feeling, just as they caught sight of the man on the other side of the court, waving at them. It was Aiba. 

"Hi!" he called across to them. 

Sho exchanged a few looks with Jun and Ohno, who looked as unconvinced as he was that this was a coincidence. The four of them met in the middle of the court. 

As they got closer Sho tried to focus on his thoughts, and on acting normal, and not the weird distracting buzzing. 

"Not stalking again, are you?" Jun asked. 

From the way he was smirking, Sho assumed he was teasing Aiba. 

"No! Well… I don't know, I just thought I ought to be here, you know?" Aiba was babbling. 

Sho nodded a bit, because he understood the sentiment. 

"No Takeru-kun though," Ohno pointed out after a few seconds of silence had passed between them. 

"Who?" Aiba inquired. 

Ohno explained the part about how the super popular basketball guy, who they all found strange for one reason or another, was actually someone who had gone to school with his sister. 

Aiba absorbed this with several nods. 

Sho was looking around a bit nervously. He felt some faint tickles of unease, but they were rather far off… Also, it was really hard for Sho to feel anything at all, with Aiba's aura being so overwhelming in his general direction. 

"Sho-kun?" Ohno spoke with gentle concern, patting at Sho's back just as gently. 

Sho stared at him dazed, before he managed to shake off the fog. 

"Sorry… I'm fine." 

Ohno didn't look that convinced. Jun was also sending him a doubtful look. 

Aiba still looked confused. "So… what are you guys doing here?" 

"Ah…" Jun started hedging. 

Between them, Ohno looked quietly amused, though Sho couldn't imagine what he found funny. 

"We're here to… play basketball," Sho eventually spit out when it seemed to sink in that no one else could think of an excuse either. 

Without stopping to think it through, because he needed to do _something_ with himself in all this buzzing or he might go a little mad, Sho jogged over to snatch up the abandoned ball from the grass. 

Jun was looking at him with wide-eyes, like he thought the basketball might explode or something… 

But nothing happened. 

The birds twittered in the trees. The sun which now graced the park was slowly but surely drying their clothes. For once, the steady breeze around them seemed to warm, rather than chill. 

Sho bounced the ball in their direction, and Aiba caught it with a laugh before it flew wildly off course. 

"Can I play?" he asked with one of those blinding smiles of his. 

"Sure…" Jun answered slowly. He was looking mildly disconcerted. 

Sho wondered if he might not end up paying for dragging them all into this, based on the look Jun was giving him. 

Not that he could take it back now. 

There, in an unseasonably warm patch of the park, on an otherwise empty basketball court, the four of them played the laziest, and perhaps the most confused game of basketball that Sho had ever participated in. 

He wasn't even sure if they had teams. Sometimes they helped each other, and paired off, and sometimes they didn't. 

Aiba seemed particularly motivated. Enough to drag an edge of competitiveness out of all of them. 

Ohno startled them all with an abundance of graceful footwork which had him somewhat dancing circles around all of them… when he actually managed to get possession of the ball for any length of time. 

At first, Jun seemed to be marginally afraid of the ball, but Aiba kept taunting him, and eventually Jun's competitive streak seemed to completely take over. 

Sho threw himself into the game to shut out Aiba's buzzing, and it seemed to be working. He was laughing an awful lot, even if he rarely managed to get possession of the ball either and was probably breaking all kinds of rules… he was having fun. 

He couldn't really remember having fun like this in a long time, not since he was a kid. 

Sho wondered occasionally just what their destiny was doing, and why, but this was not one of those days. 

Today, Sho wasn't going to question it. 

\--- 

The sun seemed actually to grow hotter, though some of their heat was coming from all of the physical activity. They played for quite some time, but eventually, their energy was starting to run out. 

Jun tagged out first, weaving over to a patch of damp grass just off the court and completely collapsing. 

"Jun? You okay?" 

Sho found himself shuffling over to check, if only as an excuse to retire from the game himself. He collapsed in the grass beside Jun, panting for a while and not saying anything at all. 

Sho thought Jun looked really attractive right now, all overexerted on the ground and stuff. Not that either one of them could move even if they wanted to just then. And they were still at the park. 

_Pull it together, Sakurai._

After a near minute of breathing, Jun tipped his head to smirk at Sho, who smirked a bit perplexedly back, and then they were looking back to the court together, where Ohno and Aiba were still playing. 

Though not for very long. 

When Aiba eventually got possession of the ball back from Ohno and all of his dancing avoidance, they were both laughing, but Ohno seemed to somewhat lose steam. He paused a moment to breathe and shake out his own somewhat humid hair. 

Sho and Jun watched the whole thing with very poorly veiled fascination. 

"Ah… I'm tired," Ohno excused when Aiba dribbled the ball a little tauntingly in his direction. 

For his part, Aiba just laughed a little breathlessly himself. 

"Me too! Hey, hang on…" Aiba waved in Sho and Jun's direction as well, acknowledging the two tap-outs. "I'll go find us some water, okay? I think there's a vending machine back around the pavilions…" 

All three of them watched Aiba wander away. 

After a moment, Ohno wandered over to collapse in the grass with them. Sho smiled at him, and Ohno grinned back. From his place sprawled on his back, Jun hummed at both of them. 

"That was unexpected," he eventually pointed out, sounding significantly worn out, but… curiously satisfied. 

Sho thought it was kinda adorable. 

"It was fun," Ohno chimed with a grin at the sky, before he turned it on them. 

Jun snorted, Sho laughed, and they all went back to trying to calm their heartbeats and steady their breathing. 

\--- 

At the vending machines, Aiba was just digging in his pockets for his wallet when he felt it. 

That heavy, awful feeling was back, all at once and powerful and it felt much too close. 

He did not get the chance to get them water, or even get his wallet out. 

When Aiba turned around, the basketball dude, Takeru, was standing a few steps behind him, smirking. 

"Ehh?" was all that Aiba got out. 

Takeru reached out and grabbed his shoulder with a grip so heavy it felt like stone. 

\--- 

_Then the park disappeared._

_It blinked out of existence to Aiba and then Aiba was somewhere else. It happened so quickly it took him several panicked seconds to even register that he wasn't in the park anymore._

_Where the hell was he?_

_It was a room… vast and high-ceilinged and stone, and full of columns… and people. Young boys, and young girls, teenagers mostly. Some kids too. All standing amidst the columns, seemingly completely frozen. They reminded Aiba of mannequins, or maybe statues._

_It was **seriously** creepy._

_With a start, Aiba realized that he didn't know what happened to that guy, and he was so lost. What was happening? Where was the park? How did he get back?_

_…He needed to help these kids though, except Aiba didn't know what to do at all._

_When he whirled around, Aiba's heart felt like it stopped momentarily. Takeru was standing amidst the columns too, watching him. A chill went down Aiba's spine. There was a look in Takeru's eyes that was deeply evil, and that heavy feeling all around them was intensifying._

_But then Takeru… collapsed._

_In his place stood… an **actual** statue? _

_It looked like a knight made of stone, except it had a weird golden snake coiled around it… and it was moving. The statue, and the snake too._

_"Whaat the hell," Aiba babbled slightly, for a moment just trying not to trip backward over his own feet._

_The statue was talking._

_"Stupid children…"_

_It stroked the hair of one of the frozen teens. Aiba cringed._

_"Did no one teach you not to talk to strange men?" It laughed, and the sound was so uncomfortable to Aiba, like rocks grating against each other._

_He could not ever remember being quite this terrified before but…_

_"Now… I will take **your** soul," the statue growled at him, and it lunged for Aiba. _

_Aiba moved without thinking. The statue tried to grab him, but Aiba grabbed its arm first._

_It looked completely outraged. "Why aren't you frozen??"_

_"I don't know!" Aiba could feel the panic rising up on him and he tried desperately to tamp it down because he knew he needed to keep his head. He felt a rush of outraged anger that seemed to help steady his nerves._

_Aiba had some questions._

_"What is this place? What are you doing to them? I absolutely can't let you hurt them!"_

_The statue was laughing at him. "What could **you** possibly do to stop me?" It laughed again. _

_Aiba, rather instinctively, punched it right in the face._

\--- 

It was stone, so it hurt a lot. It hurt a _fuck_ of a lot, actually. 

But the room was dissolving all around them. Aiba blinked as the sudden bright daylight of the park flooded his eyes. It took a moment for him to adjust. 

Around him, all the kids from the room of stone were there, rubbing at their faces as though they had just come out of a very deep sleep. 

A few of them were asking why they were at the park. Unfortunately, Aiba really didn't have any answers for them. 

He was seriously confused himself, in fact. 

What the fuck just happened? 

\--- 

Back at the basketball court, Jun was sitting up now, though Sho and Ohno seemed disinclined to budge from their current lounging. 

The sun felt nice, and they were all sort of enjoying it while it was still there. 

"Hasn't he been gone for a long time?" Sho said eventually, when it occurred to him that Aiba still hadn't come back. 

Jun frowned at him. "Yeah…" he trailed off, gaze flickering between the other two. "Maybe we should go look for him?" 

"We better, I don't think he would just not come back," Ohno decided, already on his feet. 

He gave Sho and Jun a hand up as well. 

"Do you know where he went exactly?" Jun was asking. 

"We'll find him," Sho said rather resolutely, because he believed it. 

The trio set off to search. 

\--- 

Aiba was still mostly trying not to panic when he spotted Takeru lying in the grass a few paces away, the only other adult, and one of the few remaining who had not yet wandered away. 

He appeared to be significantly freaking out. He was screaming and scrambling away from the statue thing. 

_Oh fuck, it's here._

Without pausing to think, Aiba threw himself between them, just as the statue was flinging out it's long golden snake. 

Instead of coil around Takeru, the snake wrapped itself tight around Aiba's neck, and _squeezed._

It hurt, and then Aiba couldn't breathe. The statue laughed, and tugged the writhing snake hard, dragging him stumbling forward with it, though the tension on his throat did not let up. 

He couldn't get enough oxygen. Aiba was pretty sure his vision was starting to black out, and he didn't know why but he felt like giggling. 

_Things were just getting interesting, too…_ drifted randomly through his head as he felt himself slowly sinking into darkness. 

\--- 

_Aiba's Interlude_

_"Aiba-chan! You're not alone!"_

_He was having a vision._

_He knew it was a vision because it was really vivid, except for the fuzzy white haze all around the edges of his perception._

_He also knew it was a vision, probably brought on by imminent death, because Jun was walking toward him. Except he looked… wow._

_Jun's hair was way longer for one thing, and he had pigtails, and boots, and he was flashing some serious leg too. Aiba tried not to stare, though he supposed if he was gonna die anyway he might as well take advantage of the situation._

_Jun was looking at him slightly nonplussed. "I'm in your head. I can hear what you're thinking, you know."_

_Aiba discovered it was possible to blush in a vision._

_"What are you doing here? Why are you wearing… all that?"_

_"You need to fight, Aiba-chan," Jun was saying, and there was a vibrant urgency in his voice that Aiba could never ignore. "You are an Arashi soldier. You can do this."_

_Aiba didn't know what that meant, but Jun was slipping something onto his wrist. A bracelet, with round stone beads that resembled jade and gave off a faintly green glow._

_"What's this for?"_

_"You must fight…" Jun's voice was fading, and so was Jun. Aiba frowned after him, not sure what to do._

_But then it seemed… he knew what to do after all._

_The bracelet on his wrist was suddenly bursting with light, and Aiba felt himself rising… and rising…_

\--- 

When Aiba came to, back in reality, he was already in the air, and some weird as hell things were happening. 

Something that resembled storm clouds was swirling around him, flickering and glowing with flashes of sizzling lightening and low rumbles and cracks of thunder. 

This was mildly terrifying, and Aiba was ready to panic but… was he _naked?_

Not for long though. 

_Hey, that kinda tickles!_

Aiba giggled through a fair amount of his transformation. It felt like a buzzing current was dancing around him with the clouds, swirling with the vivid green of his skirt. When he landed, Aiba felt his arms doing things, so he just went with it. 

"In the name of Arashi, I will punish you!" 

_The name of…?_ Wait, that's the thing Jun said in the vision. Arashi soldier. _But why???_

\--- 

As they searched for Aiba, and Jun was pretty sure they were getting closer, that uneasy prickle they were all acquainted with was growing stronger. 

Strangely though, it did not appear to be hitting Sho. 

"It's weird," Sho was saying with a frown. "All I feel is Aiba's… aura. I'm trying to follow that…" 

"Well it's leading us in the same direction as the dark stuff," Ohno mumbled worriedly. 

"Yeah, I've got a really bad feeling. I think we should transform," Jun decided. 

Sho sighed. "Probably." 

So they did. 

\--- 

The snake had come loose from his neck during the whole bizarre sequence of events that led Aiba to be standing there in… whatever this ensemble was, wielding what appeared to be a glittery green microphone. 

He did note that it was markedly similar to whatever Jun had been wearing in his vision. Only greener, and less purple. 

Also, Jun had not had one of these spiffy belts covered in green balls. Or purple balls. Whatever. Jun didn't have a belt! 

Aiba pulled at his own hair with gloved fingers, and it was definitely _his_ hair, but it was a bit of a reddish brown now, and he had bangs suddenly, and when he reached up, it felt like he had a long ponytail near the top of his head. 

_This is very unusual!_ some part of his brain tried to point out to him. 

But he didn't have much time to ponder on it. The statue man was still coming at him. Aiba realized with some concern that it had closed quite a lot of the distance. 

"Uh…" 

Without really a clue what he was doing, Aiba instinctively threw his hands out, microphone and all, and willed something to happen. 

A bolt of lighting cracked down from the sky, hit the statue, and cracked it right in two. 

It crumbled to the ground, and then… seemed to deteriorate into even finer dust … and blow away… 

Aiba was justifiably a little thunderstruck ( _metaphorically_ ). He looked down at himself, and at the microphone in his hand, and then at the remnants of dust that had just recently been that statue thing. 

"I have _Pikachu_ powers!?" Aiba found himself demanding aloud in the skies general direction. He didn't really know who he expected to answer. 

_How did this work!?_

"Aiba-chan!" 

When Aiba spun, he saw the three men he left at the basketball court only… different. 

Jun, who called out to him, looked the same as he had in Aiba's vision, and Sho and Ohno… appeared to have their own colors too. 

The colors seemed to suit them. 

"I knew there was a reason you were pushing all my buttons." Sho sounded amused, and possibly a bit exasperated. 

Aiba wasn't really sure what he meant about button pushing. He couldn't remember deliberately pushing _anyone's_ buttons yet but… it seemed like there were more pressing questions. 

"Welcome to the Arashi soldiers," Ohno was saying with a smile that Aiba could not help but match. 

"I don't know what that is!" Aiba informed them, but he was actually more excited than worried about it. "Why me?" 

"It's our destiny," Jun said. Aiba thought he sounded a little resigned, but maybe not in a bad way. 

"Correct," said a little ball hovering suddenly just in front of him. Aiba swallowed kind of hard and stared. 

It looked a lot like that ball he saw at Sho's shrine the other day but… I mean, obviously this one was flying so that was different. 

"…" 

"You may call me SOUL," she said to him. 

Aiba remembered to close his mouth after a moment, while she continued to speak. He didn't know why this was so much more shocking to him than everything else that just happened. 

Maybe it was just the final straw. 

"All four soldiers are now activated. Now, we must find the Rainbow Crystal. Now, you must combine your powers. Now, you must train." 

"What? Train? You never said anything about training," Jun cut in rather suddenly. 

"You must learn to channel the natural forces of the universe through your voices and perfectly timed dance moves," was all the floating ball said, sounding completely unmoved on the matter one way or the other. 

Aiba kept trying to figure out how she was flying like she was, but he wasn't being terribly successful doing so.

"We have to figure out what's up with that 'N' guy too," Sho pointed out. 

That caught Aiba's attention, because he had seen the news reports about them. The masked vigilante. 

Now that he thought of it actually… that costume did look really familiar. 

"Well…" Jun was saying slowly, glancing around at them all, and gestured slightly for them to move in closer. "I guess… since this is our destiny and everything, and we're all together now. I guess we should do our best, right?" 

Though he sounded a little skeptical, after a moment, Jun threw his hand into the center of the rough circle the four of them had formed together. 

For a few silent beats, they all just looked at him. 

"Come on, guys," Jun urged, wiggling his fingers. 

Ohno threw his hand in first, then Aiba watched Sho add his hand to the pile, before he finally topped them all. 

With his hand. 

In the… 

_Oh nevermind,_ Aiba sighed. 

Whether by accident or fate, they managed to proclaim their destiny together as one voice. 

**"Arashi!"**

\--- 

Epilogue 

They did not sense her, she was far too careful for that, but watching the group from a distance was another of Usagi's loyal servants, in a glinting orange gown. 

She had just received some potentially helpful information. 

Which is why she was currently talking to herself. 

"N… huh?" Minako smirked. Were anyone there to see it, it would have appeared quite a deadly smirk indeed. " _Interesting_ …" 


End file.
